


30 Day OTP Challenge

by KaramelHaven



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: 30 Day OTP Challenge, Alex and Mon-El are one of my Brotp, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, KaraMel, Time Travel, Winn and Mon-El are my other Brotp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-14 12:58:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 74,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10536942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaramelHaven/pseuds/KaramelHaven
Summary: To help with the hiatus, just going to try my hand at doing a 30 Day OTP Challenge for Karamel :-) I'll try to post every day, maybe even twice a day at times, and I'll be adding tags and characters as they come up ;-)





	1. Holding Hands

It was something so simple, something she hadn’t even realized. And now it was all over the news! HOW had she not noticed?

“Everything ok?”

Kara looked up from where she was standing in the middle of her living room, her arms crossed with a fist resting under her chin, the remote control for the TV clutched in her other hand. Her glasses were on her nose as she tilted her head to the side to watch the latest news footage. Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun, slightly damp from the shower she’d just had.

Mon-El was making his way towards her, in a pair of dark jeans and a black shirt. There was a white towel casually placed over his shoulders and bunched up, his hair as soaked, having showered after her. He was looking at her with concern shining in his eyes, eyes which were flickering up to her forehead where she could already feel the scrunch and crinkle forming. 

She sighed a deep breath and lowered her arms, slumping slightly, “Well, everything’s not BAD.”

Mon-El chuckled at that and moved over to the couch, reaching out to tug her gently down beside him. He took the remote from her and increased the volume, his superhearing not quite as attuned as Kara’s was just yet. 

“…speculation on what it could mean,” a male news caster was stating.

His female co-anchor seemed to just barely refrain from rolling her eyes at him, “I think it’s pretty clear what it means, Ron. Supergirl’s got a Super-Bae.”

Mon-El’s eyes widened as the footage cut to the same clip that was playing on a loop in the corner. It was a fire that had happened just a few hours ago, the reason he and Kara had needed to shower in the first place. The soot and ash and smell of smoke clinging to them had done horrors to their sense of smell. They had rushed to the scene of the inferno and been able to help get all the civilians out alive. He had even saved a little girl’s precious “Fluffy!” even if he was sure that cat was the spawn of some sort of monster for how often it tried to claw his eyes out while he was getting it out safely. Kara had been proud of him for helping, for taking direction and doing what was needed to help the humans, J’onn had been proud of him, even Alex had given him a small smile. But, what’s more, HE was proud of him. He’d run into a burning building despite how scared he’d been, and been able to do something to help.

He wasn’t as used to the idea of being mostly-invulnerable as Kara was. He still flinched when loud noises went off during a battle, he still would rather duck an object flying at him than let it bounce off. But Kara had had years to get used to it, he’d only had barely a year. He still didn’t think of himself as invulnerable, so he still felt that human fear of putting himself in danger all the time. He was working on pushing past it though.

But that wasn’t what was drawing his attention to the footage. It wasn’t the fire but the aftermath of it.

There he was, standing beside Kara in her Supergirl uniform, him in DEO black with colored shades on. It would have been normal. They were giving a report to a fire chief, reassuring him the building was sound enough for them to enter and determine where the fire came from. Nothing out of the ordinary…

Until the footage continued after the chief had walked away. It zoomed in on the two of them as he reached out and took Supergirl’s hand. Even from a distance, the camera had managed to pick up on the genuine smile she’d given him, his returning grin, and the fact that she hadn’t let go of his hand but, instead, interlaced their fingers before they turned and sped off. The camera slowed down the motion to show that, just before they left, he’d scooped a startled , but laughing, Supergirl into his arms to carry her away.

He still couldn’t fly and he always protested Kara carrying him everywhere. It wasn’t his sense of male-pride, but that Kara exerted enough energy just fighting bad guys or saving people all day, he didn’t want to add to that strain by needing her to lift him. So he would always try to whisk her off in his arms, it always earned him a laugh and a smile when he managed to catch her off guard enough to do it too.

Mon-El frowned a moment later and turned to Kara.

Her eyes widened, “Oh, no!” She shook her head quickly. “No, I wasn’t upset or anything. Not about them catching us holding hands. I’m definitely not upset that they think we’re together. We are, and that’s that. And it’s adorable, really. I like holding your hand.” She squeezed the one still holding her own. “Whether it’s as Supergirl or Kara. It’s sweet and it makes me happy. I mean,” she huffed out a laugh, “I can’t really just ‘hold someone’s hand’ whenever I like, however I like. Once, when I was a kid, I tried to hold Jeremiah’s hand and I broke it. So it’s really nice to hold yours as tight as I want and not have to worry about…”

Mon-El let out a small chuckle at that. “You’re rambling.”

“Sorry.” She flushed.

He leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “It’s cute.”

“Yeah?” She beamed at him in a shy manner.

“Yeah.” He nodded. “I wasn’t actually worried about the hand holding though.”

“You weren’t?” She blinked.

“If you didn’t want me to hold your hand then, you would have pulled away, or yelled at me, but you didn’t, you squeezed back. So I knew you weren’t upset about that.”

“Then what…”

“Why are they calling me an ocean?”

Kara snorted at that. “What?”

“A bay,” he repeated. “That’s where the ocean meets land right?”

Kara gave him an amused look for that, but one that was filled with fondness for how much he still needed to learn about Earth, but how hard he was trying to soak it all in. “Yeah, a bay connects to the ocean. But that’s bay, as in B-A-Y.”

“…and that’s not what they meant?” he surmised.

“No.” Kara giggled. “They were talking about bae, B-A-E. It’s a term of endearment on Earth, it’s like calling someone babe or baby, but shortened. Some people even say it’s an acronym for ‘before anyone else.’”

“So it’s a good thing, then?”

“It depends.” Kara shifted slightly beside him, looking down at their hands, playing with his fingers, in a bout of shyness. “If you don’t like being called that, I can…”

“Would you be MY Bae too?” He interrupted gently, resting a hand on her knee after dropping the remote beside him.

Kara blushed as she looked at him under her lashes. “I’d like that.”

“Then I do, too.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Kara’s grin widened. “Super-Bae.” She giggled under her breath. “A lot of hearts are gonna be broken when news spreads that Supergirl’s taken,” she teased.

“So long as it’s not your heart.” Mon-El leaned in and kissed her, Kara’s hands coming up to rest on his cheeks before she leaned back onto the couch, taking Mon-El with her.


	2. Cuddling Somewhere

The steady beeping echoing through the room was the only sound Kara could hear as she stood in the DEO’s medical bay, staring at the prone form lying on one of the beds. Mon-El’s heartbeat echoed doubly to her as her ears strained to hear it beating within his chest while also listening to the machines meant to alert the others if anything went wrong.

It had all gone wrong already.

It had to have or else Mon-El wouldn’t be lying on a bed, hooked up to machines that could barely do anything for him, with his chest wrapped up in white bandages. 

She could still see the red blotches leaking through them before they’d been changed.

It had started off so simply. It was a routine robbery. She and Mon-El had gone out to handle it. He had been so excited despite how typically boring such an event had become to her. It was the first time he got to wear his supersuit Winn made for him. She honestly hadn’t known who was more excited to see him in it, Mon-El or Winn. It was a black suit, like her cousin’s was blue, covering most of Mon-El’s body except his head. He had red boots up to his knees, red gloves up to his elbows, and a red belt around his waist. Winn had even given him a red cape to match hers despite the fact Mon-El couldn’t fly, claiming it went with the aesthetic. He’d kept his tinted shades as well, just to keep something from his DEO uniform. The suit was just like hers, fireproof and, most importantly given Mon-El’s lead allergy, bulletproof.

Or it should have been.

She had spent countless hours training Mon-El to help him overcome his instinct to dodge out of the way when a bullet came at him. If he moved, the person behind him could be shot, and with the new suit he wouldn’t have to fear bullets anymore.

She was kicking herself now.

She’d turned her back to help a hostage held at gunpoint, leaving Mon-El to face the man’s partner. To his credit, Mon-El had stood straight and faced down the partner’s gun without showing the fear she knew he probably felt. She’d turned for just a moment, heard a gunshot, thought, for one brief moment, that Mon-El would be able to take down the partner given that the suit would stop the bullet…only to hear Mon-El scream in pain.

She’d whipped around so fast that her cape took out the hostage-holder and just…snapped.

Mon-El had been on the ground, red was seeing out of a wound in his chest and onto his suit, his body seizing from the lead. She’d flown at the partner, took him out with a punch that was just barely held back to not kill a human. The DEO had stormed in once the two men were down, allowing her to rush to Mon-El and try to help him. He’d been taken to the DEO for surgery, needing to get the bullet out before his body tried to heal around it.

It was too close to his heart, she could see it from the red, from the tear in the suit.

She may have yelled at Winn when he rushed in to see what happened. It was his suit. He’d promised her it was bulletproof. He’d sworn to her Mon-El would be ok.

He wasn’t ok.

And she didn’t think she’d be ok either.

Alex had had to get between her and Winn, ordered her off while talking to Winn quietly about what could have happened. She’d had a hand in helping with the suit as well and it SHOULD have worked! The DEO was going to have to do a very in depth internal investigation. They’d discovered the suit was a fake copy, made of material that looked like the supersuit but wasn’t. Someone had intentionally swapped the suit so Mon-El would be vulnerable.

If he died…

Kara swallowed hard, if he died, she honestly wasn’t sure what she’d do to the person who swapped the suits if she found them.

But he was alive, so far, the beeping was keeping tempo, not weakening or flickering, steady. Alex had reassured her the surgery went as well as it could go given the circumstances and patient. She’d managed to hear her sister tell her Mon-El would be ok. But she wasn’t sure she believed it, she wouldn’t till he woke up.

She wanted to reach out and touch his hand, but she was so shaken she wasn’t sure she could do it without using all her strength and hurting him in his weakened state. All she could do was stand there, helpless, and pray to Rao he’d wake up and be ok.

As though her god heard her pleas, the heart rate picked up slightly and Mon-El’s eyelids twitched before fluttering open.

“Ow.”

She let out a wet laugh at that, tears that had been collecting in her eyes starting to spill over as she tried to smile at seeing him awake.

“And I thought my leg hurt.”

“Don’t.” She shook her head and moved closer, reaching out to just place her hand on top of his. “Don’t, please.”

Mon-El gave her a tired nod. “Sorry.”

She gave a choking gasp. “It was my fault. I kept telling you not to duck aside and…”

“Hey,” he cut in gently, turning his hand over and grasping hers. “Shhh,” he murmured.“Not your fault.”

She inhaled shakily. “Someone swapped your suit. We don’t know who, but they wanted you to get hurt and…”

“I’m fine.” he smiled at her.

“You were shot!” She only barely managed to keep from shouting.

“I’ll BE fine, then.” He squeezed her hand. “I’ll heal.”

She just stared at him. “If I hadn’t pushed you to be a hero so much, you wouldn’t have been out there.”

She felt so stupid, so selfish. He had told her, countless times, that he didn’t want to be a hero, that he didn’t feel the same sense of selfless justice that she did. And she had been so angry and frustrated with him because of it. She’d called him selfish, a jerk, put him down so much just because he wasn’t following the path she set for him or doing what she deemed was right.

She’d been a hypocrite. She had spent years, decades even, of her life NOT being a hero. NOT using her powers. NOT feeling the need to save the random stranger on the street, until Alex had been in danger. Until it personally affected her. And she’d given Mon-El a hard time about HER being the triggering factor of him wanting to be a hero.

She just expected him to conform to her desires and share her drive, he was a different person than her from an entirely different culture that had not grown up on Earth or forming a bond with the humans like she did. He’d come so far though, he’d grown into being a hero, he WANTED to be one now.

And he’d nearly died because of it, because of her pushing.

It was one thing for HER to be a hero and go out there without fear of being injured. She was literally invulnerable to everything except Kyrptonite.

Mon-El was NOT. He was allergic to the very thing that nearly all weapons on Earth were comprised of. A bullet shot at her would do nothing, but at him was just as deadly as for a human. The suit was supposed to help, but unless he was covered from head to toe in it, he was still vulnerable at times.

“YOU still would have been,” Mon-El argued lightly. “You may be Supergirl and look out for everyone else, but you aren’t invincible, you need someone to look out for you, too. Just like Lois does for Clark.”

“I’M not the one with a lead allergy,” she reminded him.

“Not all weaknesses are physical,” Mon-El stated, surprisingly wisely. “The sun gives you strength but the humans make you weak.”

“Mon-El…”

“I don’t mean that in a bad way.” He looked at her, squeezing her hand to reassure her he wasn’t trying to make the humans seem like the villain. “I mean…” He let out a frustrated breath. “You would do ANYTHING to save someone in danger, even walk into a room filled with Kryptonite, right?” She had to give a reluctant nod at that. “If you have someone else there, they can help you so it doesn’t happen. I can help you protect the humans so you aren’t made to be vulnerable.” He smiled up at her. “I’d walk into a room of Kryptonite for you.”

She let out a small laugh at that, at how ridiculous he sounded. Kyrptonite wasn’t deadly to him like it was her…but that was his point, lead wasn’t deadly to her like it was him. They all had weaknesses and strengths, what someone held as a weakness, another could make up for and protect them from, help them with. 

“I’d take a bullet for you,” she returned.

He chuckled, but winced, his other hand coming up to his chest, just over his wound. “I should not laugh.”

“You should rest,” she murmured. “You need to heal. You’ll feel better the faster you do.”

“Hmmm.” He hummed, cracking an eye open at her. “You know what would make me feel much, much better?”

“What?”

He tugged on her hand lightly. “If you come over here and cuddle with me.”

She bit the bottom of her lip at that. “I don’t want to hurt you…”

“Having you so far away is hurting me,” he admitted. “I’d like you here, in my arms, so I know YOU are ok too. Please?”

She silently cursed Winn for explaining to Mon-El what “puppy dog eyes” were when he turned them on her. She was a sucker for puppies.

“Ok,” she whispered, helping him gently to move to the side and make more space for her before she scooted onto the bed and laid beside him, careful where she put her arms as she rested her head on his shoulder, letting out a content breath when he moved his arm around her too. “How’s this?”

She could feel his smile against her forehead.

“Just perfect.”

And if Alex came in a half hour later and found her sister all cuddled up with her Daxamite boyfriend as the two dozed, well…everyone important would be getting the picture she took of them.


	3. Gaming

Kara jumped back from her front door with just enough time to avoid Mon-El as he hurried in. She’d been sitting on her couch, eating some ice cream and watching a cooking show, when someone had started to knock somewhat frantically on her door. A quick x-ray scan revealed Mon-El standing there with a box in his arms so she’d jumped up and rushed over to let him in.

“Kara!” 

Well, at least she knew it was nothing bad or dangerous, he sounded pretty excited just from how he said her name.

“What’s up?” she asked, following him over to her coffee table as he set the box down.

“Are you using your TV right now?” he answered instead, turning to face her but blocking the box.

“Just watching Top Chef.” She shrugged. “Why?”

“Would it be alright to use your TV then?” He still hadn’t answered her question.

“For what?” she asked hesitantly, trying to lean around him to peek at the box more.

“No, no, it’s a surprise.” Mon-El practically beamed at her as he continued to block her view. She merely crossed her arms and gave him a look. He sighed. “Alright, Winn told me about this vid-yo game…”

“Video,” she corrected automatically.

“Right, that.” Mon-El smiled. “For…” He turned around and dug through the box, pulling out a Nintendo console, a rather old one it appeared, one with a big-bulky cartridge slot on the top. “This…Nint-en-doo…”

“Nintendo.”

“Yes. He was telling me all about it and offered to lend me his old one to play it on. Can I?”

Kara couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm, the spark in his eye that told her how truly excited he was for something as simple as playing a video game from years ago by the looks of the console.

“Why not?” She laughed, taking the console from him and moving to set it up at her TV. She and Alex had had one of those when they were kids, and even though that had been quite a few years ago, she could probably work out how to hook it up faster than Mon-El would. “Which game is it?”

“The BEST.” Mon-El’s voice sounded twice as excited now that she couldn’t see him. “According to Winn, at least. It’s got EVERYTHING. It’s about a hero who must go on an epic quest to save his beloved princess that was captured by an evil overlord. There are different worlds the hero goes to through portals and different challenges he has to face in order to grow stronger and hone his skills enough to fight the overlord and save the woman he loves. There are underwater levels and frigid snowy mountains, journeys through castles and deserts, with traps and foes he has to defeat in each world or he loses health, whatever that means…”

“That actually sounds really awesome,” Kara remarked, finishing connecting the last cord and turning to see him standing with his hands behind his back. She rolled her eyes at his attempt to hide which cartridge he was clearly clasping behind him but decided not to peek. He was really excited about this.

“Winn offered to show me how to play it at his place.”

Kara blinked. “So why…” She pointed at her TV, the Nintendo logo flashing on the screen.

Mon-El shrugged. “I sort of wanted to try it with you.” His gaze drifted down a moment. “The way he talked about the hero…it reminded me of you.” He looked up at her.

“Really?” Kara couldn’t help but blush ever so slightly at that.

Mon-El nodded. “The hero is strong. Like really strong. He can break rocks and pound his enemies easy. He’s fast and can jump really high. He can even fly, too! But he’s also, according to Winn, a really happy person. Winn said he’s never been able to play the game and not smile because the hero is just a really good guy and always sounds cheerful. Even though he’s trying to save his princess and facing all these dangers, even though he gets hurt or the obstacles seem too big, he never gives up hope or loses sight of what’s around him. No matter how dangerous it seems to be, he's always ready to face it, without fear. He's brave and strong and determined.”

Kara would forever deny she had tears in her eyes at Mon-El’s description. “He sounds like a hero worth being.”

Mon-El smiled at that. “I know I’m still new to being a hero, let alone a superhero, but I thought…maybe this could be a place to start?” He seemed about to reveal the cartridge, but caught himself at the last moment. “Maybe playing a hero in a game, with a real-life hero helping me through it right beside me, I can learn more about how to be one myself.”

Kara nodded, feeling herself starting to smile, her heart racing with the excitement Mon-El had been exuding just moments ago. “Well what are you waiting for?” She laughed, stepping towards him. “Put it in!”

She even reached out to gently turn him as she passed him on her way to the couch, so he was facing her the entire time and the cartridge remained hidden. Mon-El hurried over to the console and plugged it in, blocking it so she wouldn’t see what it was just yet.

Kara wiggled as she sat on the couch, a wide grin on her face as the game began loading, actually excited to spend the rest of her night gaming with Mon-El. The way he’d described the game and the hero, she really couldn’t wait to be surprised at which game it was, there were SO many! 

Needless to say, Mon-El was very confused as to why Kara laughed so hard she fell off the couch when the words “It’s-a me, Mario!” echoed through the room.


	4. On a Date

“Mon-El!” Kara laughed as she gripped his hand tighter and doing her level best NOT to use her x-ray vision to see through the blindfold he’d tied around her eyes.

They were walking down the street on their way to their latest date which Mon-El insisted be a surprise. He’d even gone so far as to ask Alex if using something lead lined to really make sure Kara didn’t peek would be too much or if Kara could be trusted not to peek.

It was a near call, according to Mon-El. Apparently Alex had told him all about the number upon number of Christmases and Birthdays with the Danvers that involved the amount of times she peeked at her presents. 

SHE had argued that she was older and more mature now.

To which Alex had laughed and reminded her she’d spent four hours straight watching Blue’s Clues last week. (The dog was adorable! Sue her!)

So she’d tried for the more adult approach of offering a scouts honor!

To which Alex had reminded her she’d never been a Girl Scout so that didn’t apply.

…she really needed to argue for herself when Alex wasn’t there to counter every effort.

Still, it was sweet how much effort Mon-El had put into planning this date that he’d gone to Alex for her advice on his plans for her sister. She could tell it meant a lot to Alex that Mon-El had done that. She knew Alex had had some reservations about Mon-El at first, likely in large part due to her Kryptonian prejudices against Daxamites rubbing off on her, but she liked to think Alex and Mon-El had formed a solid friendship. It was reassuring to Alex that Mon-El had sought her out, like he was making his intentions for that night clear to her for approval.

The fact that she was blindfolded without a lead-lined add-on made her really want to not peek too. Mon-El was putting his trust in her to keep her word and not ruin the surprise and she wanted to live up to that. 

(And if she perhaps was hoping that, by letting Mon-El blindfold her now, maybe he might be agreeable to being blindfolded later…)

She blushed at her train of thought derailing and shook her head quickly. “Are we there yet?”

Mon-El’s warm laugh sounded by her ear. “Almost, it’s just around the corner.”

She pursed her lips just slightly as she concentrated…

Only for Mon-El to put his hands over her ears a moment, before pulling them away. “No cheating!” he chastised her playfully.

She let out a teasing huff but stopped trying to user her superhearing to figure out where they were going.

(Hey! She had promised not to peek, she’d said nothing about eavesdropping!)

Kara fell silent as they walked on, focusing on the feel of Mon-El’s arm around her, the solid presence of his body pressed against her side, the smell of his natural scent…she was quite pleased about that last one. Winn had tried to introduce Mon-El to the concept of aftershave being a date-appropriate, even expected, endeavor. But the smell of the ones Winn had shown him had garnered nothing but the most hysterical facial expressions. And if she had all of them saved on her phone courtesy of Alex, well that was her secret.

She was jostled out of her thoughts when Mon-El suddenly stopped. “We’re here!” he announced.

Kara shivered slightly as she felt an unexpected gust of cool air waft over her as they entered some sort of building. “Can I take this off now?” She was already reaching for her blindfold.

Mon-El laughed. “Go ahead.”

Kara ripped the fabric off her face so quickly she was sure someone, had they been looking, would have noticed the superspeed of it.

She blinked and stared at the sight before her, at a big banner hanging on the wall reading…

“Karaoke Night?”

Mon-El nodded, reaching out to take her hand, drawing her attention to him as he lead her slightly off to the side, out of the way of the door. “I um…” He seemed to struggle with the words, looking almost sheepish. “Alex mentioned you hadn’t been singing lately,” he remarked. “She said you only do that when you’re not as happy as you usually are.”

“I’m fine,” she insisted, taking his other hand and squeezing it in reassurance.

“I know I haven’t been on Earth long.” Mon-El gave her a look. “But I’ve been around you long enough to know you’re always making some kind of noise. Whether it’s singing under your breath, or humming a song, or that weird little nose whistle you do when you sleep on your side…”

“I do NOT make a nose whistle,” she muttered, though it sounded weak.

Mon-El just continued, “Even I can tell something’s been bothering you.” He reached out absently, touching her cheek lightly. “At first I thought it was something I’d done. I mean,” he let out a somewhat self-depreciating laugh, “It wouldn’t be the first time I let you down or failed you or disappointed you or done any of that without realizing…”

“It wasn’t you, Mon-El,” Kara cut in, reaching up her free hand to take his as it rested on her cheek, pressing it closer to her and leaning her head into his touch. “If anything, YOU have made me feel better.”

“Better,” Mon-El repeated, his expression revealing that he felt she’d admitted something. “So you’re NOT ‘fine.’”

“Mon-El…”

“Kara,” Mon-El cut in ever so gently, not wanting to talk over her or shut her up, but really wanting to finish what he was saying without her trying to deny how poorly she’d been feeling. She sighed but nodded. “I realized after I talked to Alex, that you haven’t done any of your happy sounds since the Music Meister.”

Kara was silent at that, feeling almost surprised at how unsurprised she was that he’d noticed that point.

“You told me a little about that world he sent you and Barry to,” he continued. “That you had to sing and dance, literally for your life. And that must have been a bad experience that he took something you loved and made it something bad. It’s like…” He let out a small huff. “When I was a kid, I used to sneak into the kitchens at the palace because they always had Gabrine.”

It was one of the few delicacies shared on Daxam and Krypton, it reminded him slightly what a mixture of ice cream and cake batter would be. It was a dessert, a sweet treat on their planets. 

“I’d sneak in as much as I could and nab some to eat. It was just really good, my favorite treat.” His expression dimmed just slightly. “My father found out about it and decided I needed to learn moderation. So he sat me down and set all the Gabrine we had in front of me and made me eat it till I got sick. I couldn’t stand even the thought of Gabrine for years after that. Sometimes I still can’t stomach the memory of its taste.”

“That’s horrible,” Kara breathed, horrified at what Mon-El’s father had done to a child. 

She had once loved these little lemon drop candies the Danvers kept at their home. Alex had gotten her a huge bag of it once for her Earth-Birthday and she’d eaten it all in a day…and gotten so sick of them it was sometimes hard for her to stomach anything lemon now. But that had been HER choice to eat all that so quickly, Mon-El’s father had forced him to eat like that.

“I know it’s not the same thing,” Mon-El added, smiling at how Kara was shaking her head at him, her way of telling him that just because it wasn’t the same deadly situation, his memory and his experience weren’t invalidated because of it. “But I can relate, even a little, how it feels to have someone take something you love and twist it, turn it against you. So I wanted to try and give you that back.” He nodded over at the small stage and prompter being set up in the corner.

Kara could only stare at him with tears in her eyes.

Mon-El’s eyes widened. “Or we could go,” he said quickly, misinterpreting her expression. “We don’t have to stay. We should go, actually. Right now. This was a stupid idea anyway and…”

“No,” Kara’s voice wavered with emotion, a smile on her face now. “No, Mon-El, it’s…it’s wonderful and incredibly thoughtful.”

“Yeah?” he whispered.

“Yeah.” She let out a giggle. “I…I missed singing,” she admitted. “I would always start and then I’d just remember the last time I sang and why and everything that happened and, I don’t know, I guess I just thought if I sing, it means I’m still in that world and you…”

She cut herself off suddenly.

Mon-El blinked. “Me?”

He knew he was in that musical world, Kara had told him that there were altered versions of pretty much all of them somewhere in that realm, but she hadn’t seemed very eager to talk about it so he hadn’t pushed.

Kara looked down, closing her eyes at her slip. She knew Mon-El wouldn’t push her if she said she didn’t want to talk about it, but…he’d done all this for her, even gotten Alex’s blessing apparently, she could reveal a little more about why the idea of singing had triggered such bad memories of the other realm.

“I was afraid that I’d sing and realize I was still in that world where you loved someone else.”

There, she’d said it.

“I love you,” Mon-El said simply, the confused note in his voice made Kara look up.

“I know.” She gave him a small smile. “But in the other world, you…or your character…was in love with Iris.”

Mon-El blinked at that…and promptly started laughing.

“It’s not funny!” But even as she said it, Kara couldn’t help but laugh as well.

“I’m sorry.” He cleared his throat, trying to stop the chuckles. “I’m sorry, but…Iris is a lovely woman, but she’s very in love with Barry and, correct me if I’m wrong because I know Daxam customs don’t always translate, but even on Earth it’s very uncouth to vie for another man’s mate.”

“You’re not wrong,” Kara agreed, it was one of the few areas where Daxam and Earth shared the same ideal. She let out a long breath. “I just…it got to me, seeing you…your character…with Iris like that. When I first woke up on Barry’s Earth, I kept thinking, every time you’d look in Iris’s direction, that I’d see the same lovey expression on your face as your character’s.”

Mon-El nodded, absorbing what she was saying. “Well, then this date works out even better.”

“How?” Kara looked up at him.

He gently tugged her closer, winding his arms around her waist as she rested her hands on his chest, his expression so soft her heart started racing against his ribs. “You get up there, and you sing your most favorite song. And when you look out at me, you’ll see me looking back at you with all the love that I have.” He leaned in more, whispering. “Just like now.”

Kara let out a shuddering breath as she saw it in his expression, in his eyes, in the gentle curves of his face, just how much he loved her and it stole the air from her lungs.

She felt herself nodding. “I think that’ll work.”

“Good.” He leaned in more and pecked her on the lips. “Now, go show these humans who’s the Floss.”

(And when Kara got home that night and her phone pinged with a new text…she would forever wonder just HOW on Earth Alex had managed to get a video of her singing “Hakuna Matata” with an exaggerated close up of Mon-El’s face as he smiled dopily at her the entire time.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made up Gabrine and that incident. It could be something plausible in Mon-El's childhood.


	5. Kissing

Kara couldn’t help the small smile that grew on her face as she felt a gentle press of lips to her forehead.

“Good morning,” Mon-El’s sleep-hoarse voice murmured in her ear.

She was warm, his arms around her, the two of them tucked in the covers on her bed, sunlight held at bay by her blinds. It had been a long night, more draining than she thought it would be and all she’d wanted to do when she called it a day around 2am, was crawl into bed and sleep forever. She’d gotten home, however, to find that Mon-El had drawn her a warm bubble bath to relax in for the 20 minutes it would take for the potstickers he’d called in to be ready. She’d nearly cried at how thoughtful it had been. 

He’d been at the DEO when she’d finished her rounds, J’onn had held him back to work on creating mental shields should a telepath try to get one over on him again, and had been allowed to leave while she had been held back to give her report. He had seen how weary she’d been and wanted to help make her night a little more enjoyable.

Falling asleep in his arms had been the most enjoyable part though.

And now her morning had begun on a high note too, the two of them finally waking up together and a gentle kiss to her forehead.

She had noticed that about Mon-El, how he tended to initiate their kisses more than she did. Overall he seemed to be a more physically affectionate person than she was. It was probably the differences between Daxam and Krypton coming into play. Her planet had always been the more scientific and upright, while his had been the more physical and open. He was always reaching out to hold her hand or wind his arm around her, always brushing a strand of hair from her face, or bestowing kisses upon her.

It was funny. Mon-El could read her easily just based on her expressions and quirks. He’d picked up on the “crinkle” she made when she lied faster than some of her friends had. He always seemed to notice that about her…but she noticed things about him too that were just as telling for how he felt.

His kisses, for example, revealed a lot. 

A kiss to the cheek, that was when he was proud of her. He kissed her on the cheek when she’d accomplished and conquered something she’d struggled with. He couldn’t exactly kiss her on the lips every time she finished off a bad guy, that was a little too much PDA for her. But a kiss on the cheek was acceptable and he took full advantage to show that he was supportive of her and proud of her. 

A kiss to the nose, for when he was feeling playful and teasing, when he wanted to cheer her up. It always tricked her. He’d lean in, like he was going to kiss her properly, and land one on the tip of her nose instead. It always made her laugh and scrunch up her face, which made him smile and laugh as well. 

A kiss to the hand, when he was trying to be formal. It hardly ever happened, but there had been a fundraiser Lena had thrown to help with aliens that Cadmus had captured, to try and offer them support and relief. The whole event had been a formal one, and Mon-El had wanted to be there as a show of support to the aliens, but also to Lena for her efforts. He trusted her judgment on the Luthor, not that he had any preconceived notions or prejudice against her. He had heard of them, but not enough to sour his view of Lena. He’d been on his best behavior, much more adapted to Earth customs than he had been before and he’d even gone so far as to kiss her hand so as “not to make a scene” of kissing her too much.

A kiss palm, when he was grateful and thankful for her. She would often touch his cheek when he was somber, trying to direct his attention to her and away from his sad thoughts. She would say something to cheer him or just remind him he wasn’t alone. He’d give her a small smile and turn his head to kiss her palm in thanks.

A mess of kisses up her arm…well, that had only happened once. Alex had shown him one of the Addam’s Family movies and he’d tried to “pull a Gomez” on her as a result. She had laughed and playfully tried to stop him, but it was just so adorable and she’d be lying if she said it hadn’t felt good.

A kiss to her…ear. That happened a time or two. Usually when Mon-El would go to the bar with Winn and James for a “guys night” when she’d have sister night with Alex (and now Maggie, who might be her sister one day too so it was fine). The alcohol there was the only thing that could get him drunk and when Winn or James (whoever was the “designated driver”, the three of them rotated) dragged him back to her apartment, not wanting the DEO to deal with a drunk alien, he’d beam at her and shout her name so loud she was always worried he’d wake up the neighbors. He’d stumble over to her and try to kiss her cheek…and miss completely, ending up kissing her ear instead and giggling to himself about how unfair it was that even her EARS were cute.

A kiss to her lips, of course, expressed his love for her. It ranged from simple greetings when she’d open the door, to goodbyes when they had to separate, and everything in between. 

Kisses to her neck…well, that reason should be left behind closed doors and under the covers of her bed…where some other rather pleasant kisses happened.

But, to be honest, her favorite kiss was when he’d kiss her forehead. It was so simple, but so intimate. And the reason behind it, the emotion that drove him to kiss her forehead? It always left her with a warm glow in her stomach and a dopey grin to match. Because that sort of kiss meant he was absolutely, 100% content. He felt at peace, safe, accepted, loved, and like he was her equal. He kissed her on the forehead as a way to say she wasn’t alone, but neither was he. It was a kiss of reassurance that they were together, no words needed to be spoken, just an utter bliss.

She understood him deeply in those moments when he was kissing her.

“Good morning.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wanted to take a different approach than a literal "kiss scene" chapter and explore the different types of kisses and what they could mean.


	6. Wearing Each Others' Clothes

Kara stood in her bathroom, staring at her reflection in the mirror for…probably longer than she really should have. It wasn’t a big deal. It really wasn’t. She should just go out there, into her bedroom, as calm and cool and collected as always. It wasn’t going to be bad. Mon-El wasn’t going to laugh at her, she knew that much. He wouldn’t make her feel bad about what she was wearing, but what if it was too much too soon?

She looked down at her shirt, tugging at the hem of it and really tried to not smile. 

Because it wasn’t HER shirt.

It was Mon-El’s. One of his many plaid shirts. A sort of flannel material, long sleeved, buttoned up, and it was warm and smelled like him. She’d asked him once, why he favored plaid shirts and he’d gotten embarrassed about it. Eventually, he’d admitted it was because of her. Because when he’d been trying to be “Mike” and all that entailed, the plaid shirt was the first one he’d worn that she’d smiled at. To him, plaid reminded him of a time she accepted him and was genuinely happy to see him, so he kept wearing them as a good omen for favorable reactions to him as well. This one was one of the first he’d bought with his own money from the bar. It was big on her, falling to her mid thighs, and…she didn’t have any leggings or anything on under it, just her undergarments. 

Was it too suggestive?

They’d already taken the physical step in their relationship, so it shouldn’t be a big deal if she walked around in his shirt. If anything, she’d earned that right! 

But still, was it too intimate? No, that wasn’t the right word. Presumptuous? He has so little of his own, would he think she was stealing it? Taking it permanently? Would he even LIKE seeing her wearing his clothes? They were his, she hadn’t asked, she’d just taken it and…but she wanted to look cute for him and, according to Alex and the movies she’d watched in her life, a girl wearing her guy’s shirt was supposed to be fetching.

“Come on, Kara,” she muttered to herself. “Just go out there. You have superspeed. Look at his reaction and if it’s not good, then speed back here and change, play it off like a mistake. You’ve been pulling double duty for the DEO, he won’t blame you if you grabbed the wrong shirt…”  
She nodded to herself for the pep talk and turned to march…before thinking a casual walk would be better…out of the bathroom and into her bedroom.

Mon-El was lying on her bed, in nothing but his boxers, with a laptop sitting open at the foot of it and a mess of DVD cases scattered around him. If the sight of him in his boxers wasn’t enough to stop her short and steal a breath from her, the expression on his face was. It was adorable. His brow was scrunched in concentration as he read the DVD cases, trying to determine the best one to watch.

He looked up, however, when he heard her stop walking…and gaped.

Kara took the fact that he actually dropped the case he was holding as a good sign, watching in amusement as his eyebrows rose and his eyes widened, his mouth falling open as his eyes raked over her. She fought back a flush, and probably failed to contain most of it, before walking over to her bed. And if she put more sway in her hips than the agreed upon movie night entailed, well that would be her secret.

“So what’ll it be?” she asked as she crawled onto the side of her bed.

Mon-El was silent, completely quiet as his eyes continued to trail over her body.

Kara bit her lip to stop from smiling. It appeared she’d broken Mon-El.

She let it go on for another few seconds, enjoying the feel of his gaze on her, before she leaned closer and snapped her fingers in front of his face. “Mon-El?”

“What?” His eyes snapped up from where he’d been looking at her hand just barely peeking out from the sleeve of HIS shirt, to her face.

“The movie?” Kara repeated. “Which one?”

“I…um…” He blinked a few times, his gaze following the neckline of his shirt and swallowing hard at how the top two buttons were left open. “Movie?”

Kara’s nose scrunched as she desperately tried to keep from laughing. Oh yes, she’d definitely broken him. “To watch. Which DVD did you pick?”

“DVD, right, yes, the movies, for the laptop, for movie night.” Mon-El nodded, seeming to snap out of it and turn back to the cases, his cheeks just a little more pink than they’d been a moment ago.

Kara half-expected him to ask about the shirt, but at the same time wasn’t surprised when he didn’t. Taking it as a sign of acceptance and a desire on his part not to make her feel embarrassed to the point she’d change shirts again.

“I can’t find Funny Face.” He looked at her with apology in his eyes.

“What?” Now it was her turn to be confused.

“You said we should watch it before, well, before my parents found me, but I can’t find it here and…”

“You remembered that?” she whispered the words so softly he only heard her because of his superhearing.

“I remember everything you say,” he admitted. “I know I don’t always seem like I do, or like I’m listening, but I DO. And you seemed really excited about it. It was adorable.”

Kara felt herself starting to blush at that. “I didn’t bring that DVD here, I thought you’d be more interested in some superhero movies, keep up with your training. But I have it in the living room, I’ll be right back.”

She got off the bed and walked out of the room, not bothering with superspeed to get the DVD faster. She enjoyed this normalcy that she got to have with Mon-El, where she could truly be herself, superstrength and all, and experience what a real relationship was like, domestic movie moments included.

She squatted before her TV and opened the cabinet below where her movies were stashed…and promptly screamed.

Within a half a second, Mon-El was at her side, his fist raised and looking around for the threat that had to be massive if it could make Supergirl scream. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

He was not expecting Kara to half-jump into his arms and cling to him. “Kill it!” she cried.

“Kill what?” He looked around the room for the threat, clutching her closer to him as he felt her shaking. But there was no one. Was it invisible? Was it something only Kryptonian eyes could see? Was it…

“That!”

…the smallest spider he had ever seen in his life?

Yes. Apparently it was.

Mon-El had to stare for a full minute to make sure he was actually getting this right. There, on the door of the small shelf was a very tiny black spider just casually making its way up the wood.

And, apparently, such a terrifying terror that it had sent Supergirl cowering into his arms.

He couldn’t help but smile at that. “The woman of steel, equipped with heat vision and freeze-breath…afraid of spiders?”

“Shut up,” Kara murmured into his neck where she’d buried her face so as not to even see the devil’s spawn that had made its way into her safe space.

“I’m sorry.” Mon-El turned and pressed a kiss to her hairline, as close to her face as he could get…she’d really wedged her face against him hadn’t she? “I shouldn’t laugh.”

“No, you shouldn’t,” she agreed. “What you should do is kill it!”

Mon-El turned to set Kara down so he could free his hands to do just that…only for Kara to refuse to let go of him. “Kara, I sort of need my hands…”

“Use your heat vision.”

“Yeah,” he scoffed. “Because that worked SO well at the DEO.”

He’d only recently used heatvision. He hadn’t worked out what triggered it or how to use it, it had only happened once and he was pretty sure it was just the result of some weird alien rock the DEO had confiscated that, it seemed, had swapped his and Kara’s abilities for an hour or two. He doubted he actually had heat vision like her, and even if he had…she’d probably be really angry if he destroyed not only the panel, but the DVDs, her TV, and the wall behind it too.

“Fine,” Kara huffed, shifting in his arms to lock her legs around him and her arms around his neck, hanging off him like a Koala. “Now kill it!”

Mon-El shook his head in amusement, but maneuvered himself to kneel down, reaching out to crush the little critter with the pad of his thumb. “Done.”

Kara let out a relieved breath and half slid off him. “Thank y…is my bathrobe?”

Mon-El blinked at her and looked down at himself for he was indeed wearing one of her robes, a bright pink one with smiling suns patched all over them, a gift from Alex.

“Yes.” He nodded. “Yes, it is.”

“Why are you wearing it?”

“You screamed. I thought you needed help.”

“And you took the time to put on a robe instead of get to me?”

He had to smile, she sounded more amused than angry. “You didn’t seem happy when I left the bedroom in my boxers last time, I thought I should cover up.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “That’s because Alex was here. Typically, on Earth, you don’t walk around in your underwear when you have guests over.”

“So if it’s just the two of us, I’m allowed to walk around in my bonkers?”

“Boxers.”

“That’s what I said.”

“Yes.”

He nodded, considering that. “And if you were attacked by Livewire or that Banshee person you told me about, I’m still allowed to come out in just them?”

Kara paused at that, the “yes” dying on her lips as she realized what that implied. “Ok, no,” she agreed. “Anyone else but me and you, put more clothes on.”

Mon-El’s smug grin told her he fully understood why she’d given in so quickly: only SHE was allowed to see her boyfriend so undressed.

Who knew Supergirl was the possessive type.


	7. Cosplaying

When Kara entered her apartment after a tiring day of shopping and hanging out with Alex and Maggie, the absolute last thing she expected to see was Mon-El and Winn stationed across the room from each other and ducking behind her furniture with small black plastic pistols in their hands going “pew, pew pew.”

“Kara!” Mon-El jumped to his feet the moment he spotted her.

“We were just…” Winn began, but Kara held up a hand to silence him.

She took a moment to take in their appearance. Winn was dressed in a tanish-white shirt and leggings, with cloth boots wrapped up to his knees. Mon-El was standing there in a white shirt, black vest, and black pants tucked into black boots.

When she saw the lightsaber in Winn’s hand, she drew the line there.

“I don’t want to know.”

“Winn explained to me what cosplaying is,” Mon-El tried to explain. “Livewire mentioned it and…”

“I was there,” Kara reminded him, eyeing him up and down, he made a good Han Solo. “Star Wars?” She looked between them, seeing Winn’s efforts to be Luke.

“The comic book store is doing a little cosplay contest to celebrate Rogue One coming out.” Winn beamed at that. “I wanted to go, but it’s not much fun by yourself…”

“So I offered to go too,” Mon-El finished. “Once he explained that cosplay was very, very different from cose-plae.”

Kara’s eyes widened at that, her face flushing a deep red at just the word. Krypton and Daxam shared some words despite their cultures different so distinctly. Cose-plae was a word that…well, Fifty Shades of Grey would pale in comparison to THAT.

She was, oddly, a little touched that Mon-El hadn’t wanted to participate in it till Winn explained that it was so very NOT the same thing. When he first came to Earth he probably would have been more open to it.

“Yes,” she muttered, “VERY different.”

“You should come, too!” Mon-El cheered, pointing at Kara.

“Me?” she pointed to herself in response.

“Princess Leia!” Mon-El turned to Winn. “Don’t you think she’d be perfect? Well,” he glanced at Kara, “Not that you’re not already perfect, but I meant as a Princess Leia.”

“I am NOT wearing that bikini!” Kara shook her head.

Mon-El actually seemed confused. “I was going to say you have that poncho thing. That’s what it’s called right, a poncho? Or is it a Pongo? I can’t remember which one is the Dalmatian...”

Kara blinked at that, considering what he said. She DID have a poncho that was a mix of grey, brown and green, similar to the one Leia wore running through the forest of the Ewoks. And she had the same colored pants. Her hair WAS already in a similar braid and looped on top of her head like Leia’s had been.

“Would that be ok, Winn?” Kara looked to him for approval. She’d just had a girls-day with her sister, if this was Mon-El’s version of a boys-day and she was intruding.

“Are you kidding?!” Winn seemed about ready to start jumping in place, “That would be awesome! We’ll SO win the contest having the complete trio. I don’t even think they’d mind that you’re blonde.”

Kara rolled her eyes at that, but smiled. “Just give me a minute.”

She hurried off towards her bedroom, ignoring how Mon-El and Winn high-fived behind her in excitement. If she was being honest, she was sort of excited too. She got to dress up as one of her favorite heroes as a child, and spend the day with her boyfriend…dressing up like Leia’s boyfriend…and with Winn…who was already so much like a brother to her. It was going to be an awesome day!

(And this time she’d fully blame Winn for the pictures Alex ended up with of the three of them posing with their cosplay prize.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter, but I really wanted to get two up today :-) Also, made up cose-plae.


	8. Shopping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm honestly not sure when this could possibly take place? Maybe somewhere after Mxzy but before Mon-El's parents arrive? :-/ Not sure. Also this chapter is more Mon-El and Alex as a Brotp and doing the shopping, but a majority of the shopping/reason for it has to do with Kara so I think it counts.

If you had asked Alex what she’d be doing on one of the first days off she’d had in months…pushing her way through a crowded shopping mall on Christmas Eve with Mon-El at her side was NOT something she’d have imagined. But there she was, standing beside a very confused looking Mon-El and trying to keep herself from punching the next person that shoved into her as they passed by.

She honestly wasn’t’ sure how she’d ended up there. She always made sure to do her holiday shopping months early to avoid this. She HATED shopping when it was crowded and loud and the lines were just ridiculous. She’d gotten Maggie, Kara, J’onn, even Winn and James and, yes, Mon-El sorted weeks ago. She knew Kara had as well. Mon-El, however, was a different story.

She tried not to feel irritated that she was there and not Kara and so close to Christmas as well. She’d learned only hours ago that no one had informed Mon-El of what Christmas was till yesterday. It had just been something that slipped their mind. It was so OBVIOUS. There were movies and specials and sales and music and so many things, SIGNS even, that explained what Christmas was so they’d all just assumed Mon-El would work it out. It was just such an ingrained holiday that the thought of an alien not being aware of it hadn’t even occurred to them. And that was probably the reason why Mon-El hadn’t asked them about it either. He struggled enough just trying to understand the everyday earth customs and references, to ask about something that only happened once a year? And even then, to ask about something SO obvious he likely felt he SHOULD be able to work it out, it was probably difficult for him to actually ask. She herself was the sort to struggle with something and try her best to understand it on her own before asking for help, and to see people just talking about Christmas like he should understand it didn’t help him feel comfortable enough, or not-stupid enough, to bring it up.

It had been Maggie, of all people, that had ended up explaining what Christmas was to him when she’d had the common courtesy to ask how he was handling his first Christmas on Earth, if he’d gotten his shopping done. When Mon-El had, hesitantly, asked her about how one should handle Christmas and what Christmas even was, why he needed to shop for it…the floodgates had opened.

Mon-El had been in a panic after he’d learned that presents were an expectation of Christmas for those important in his life. 

Kara had felt so guilty about how she’d completely forgotten to tell him about Christmas, she’d gone with him to get presents for everyone last minute. 

Alex had been hoping for a Christmas miracle that the aliens and criminals would get into the holiday spirit and give Supergirl a day off to actually finish the task.

She had gotten no such thing.

Thanks Jesus.

And now, because she had been the only one with the forethought to request Christmas Eve off a year ago, she was the only one free while Supergirl helped deal with thugs robbing a toystore.

“How much left do you need to get?” Alex asked him, thankful she didn’t have to yell over the crowd with his superhearing.

“I um…I actually finished my shopping with Kara,” Mon-El admitted.

Alex’s murderous expression must have tipped him off because he quickly continued.

“Except for Kara!” he added, his hands up in surrender. “And I couldn’t really get her gift with her yesterday. She was right there and keeping track of what I got everyone to make sure I didn’t go over bunions…”

Alex stared at him a moment. “You mean budget?”

Mon-El frowned, “What did I say this time?”

“Bunions.”

He let out a resigned breath and Alex felt somewhat bad for the guy. English was his second language and it was a bitch to learn just from another human language let alone an alien one.

“Look, it doesn’t matter. You still need to get Kara a gift, right? So get her one and let’s get out of here.”

“I don’t know what to get her.”

Alex rolled her eyes and prayed for patience instead. “I’m not going to tell you what to get my sister. You’re her boyfriend. You should know what she wants.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

There was something in his voice that made Alex look at him again. He seemed…sad. “What is it?”

“I know what I want to get her,” he tried to explain. “But…it doesn’t exist here. On Daxam, when two people got together out of love instead of a prearranged contract, we threw parties. Because it was love, and it made them happy, and not everyone got to have that. I mean, yeah, there were physical pleasures you could get with anyone but it wasn’t a relationship and…”

“Don’t need to hear that part,” Alex cut in, grimacing at the thought.

“Sorry,” Mon-El sighed. “At those parties, a gift would be exchanged, usually the male to his partner, elder to younger if they were both male or female, which still technically applies here. But that doesn’t matter. The point is, a specific item was exchanged from one party to the other to symbolize a new union and joining of hearts, a devotion to your partner and a promise of loyalty, fidelity, and monogamy.”

Alex couldn’t help but smile softly at that. “I thought you Daxamites were hedonists.”

“We may be more open to pleasure and what makes us feel good, but love is the best feeling a Daxamite can experience. Most people in the galaxy just hear about our parties or physical activities, but we value love and having a partner. Once the relationship is publically declared, we vow to protect our partner from everything that could harm them. It’s understood that, in forming and announcing a relationship like that, you are choosing this person of your own will and, likely, against the will and plan of your family. It’s a sort of unspoken agreement by both parties to stand by each other and fight to stay together, to not let another person try to separate you or break the love.”

Alex let out a breath at that. “And that’s why you freaked out so much about Mxzy.”

Mon-El looked away at that. “Kara didn’t understand. And I get it.” He looked to Alex. “On Earth, what I did and how I reacted isn’t always acceptable. But on Daxam, if a couple chooses to be together, they fight to stay together. And yeah, ‘we’re not on Daxam’ I know, but it’s my culture, Alex. That’s the customs I was raised with, literally the only thing I have left of my planet. That’s how important the relationship I have with Kara is to me. We were JUST about to declare ourselves to each other and Mxzy came in.”

“And you felt like the declaration was already done, because the intention was clear,” Alex realized.

Mon-El scratched the side of his face. “Kara prefers the human customs of a relationship. But I don’t know all of them. I’ve never been in one, period.”

“Not even on Daxam?” Alex was fishing, she knew, but if Mon-El had been in one on Daxam, with how much they valued it, and was now trying to play her sister…

He scoffed. “I was arranged to marry someone at birth. And my family made it very clear I would have NO chance of being able to declare someone else as my love.”

“I’m sorry.”

He shrugged. “I was never allowed to form that sort of bond with anyone. On Daxam, we only love once. It’s just how we are. So we have to be careful who we allow into our heart. We can close ourselves off to love, just feel the physical pleasure, but once we love, we do it with everything we are and hope that we’re enough for the other person.”

“And you love Kara?” She had to be sure.

Mon-El nodded. “With everything I am. I never thought I’d get to have that. In a way, that was the only good thing to come out of Daxam being destroyed. I could love someone else without fear of starting a feud over losing my heart to someone who wasn’t my intended mate.”

Alex wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Mon-El made her sister happy, she knew it, she could see it every time Kara so much as thought about Mon-El, she’d get a little sparkle in her eye and a dopey grin on her face. Her sister was in love and, on one hand, she was overjoyed to know Mon-El felt the same and would remain faithful to her sister for a very long time to come. But on the other hand, she would be lying if she said she wasn’t a little worried. 

She had known Kara her entire life, had seen her grow from the lost Kryptonian girl to who she was now, had seen how she interacted with Mon-El, and seen how Kara dealt with different situations and emotions. Kara loved Mon-El, but getting her to admit it and admit how much she loved him would be like pulling Supergirl’s superteeth. She had a sinking feeling that Mon-El would be put through the wringer by being in love with Kara and she worried that, for all his claims of loving only one person, eventually he might just get too hurt to keep it all together. She loved her sister, adored her, she was the best person in the world to her…but even she could admit that, sometimes Kara didn’t think before she acted or spoke.

She was still a little bitter about Kara just randomly deciding she should go live with Clark after they’d partnered together that one time. Kara sometimes got an idea or notion in her head and would go with it and damn the consequences or who it hurt…till it was shown to her just how much her actions or plans might actually hurt someone else, and then she was back to being her sweet and considerate self. 

She really hoped the relationship would work out for both their sakes.

“Alright,” she decided. “So, on Daxam, what’s this gift and why can’t we find it on Earth? Is it like an alien thing?”

“It’s not as much an alien thing as I’ve come to realize,” Mon-El informed her. “I’ve actually seen the gift in many, many stores. But, according to the television, it means something different on Earth than Daxam. I’m not sure Kara would let me explain what it means to me as a Daxamite as opposed to an ‘earthling’ before she freaks out over it.”

Alex had to nod at that, given how he’d reacted to Mxzy, now that she understood it more, and how Kara had reacted to his reaction, he had every right to be concerned. From what he’d said, he hadn’t even gotten to explain why Mxzy’s interference and Kara’s plan to deal with him had made him react the way he did. She wondered if Kara still didn’t know? 

She internally winced at that thought. Imagining what Mon-El must have been feeling when Kara told him she was going to marry Mxzy and rejected Mon-El…given what the “declaration” of their feelings would mean to him. He must have been crushed.

“What is it?” she got back to point.

“A ring.”

Alex blinked. “You want to get my sister an engagement ring?!”

Mon-El rolled his eyes this time. “And see, THAT’s what I mean! Earth customs are so different! On Daxam one party would give the other their family ring as a sign of acceptance and protection. It’s a symbol of a solid union and to show anyone else that the person is taken with the intention to mate. It’s just about protecting them from the advances of others, to symbolize love, and to represent that it is a relationship chosen by two people instead of their parents.”

“That sorta sounds like an engagement ring to me.”

“I don’t want to marry Kara!” he stated, before realizing what he’d said and who to. “I mean, I don’t know enough about marriage to say if I do or don’t. I don’t know how Kara feels and…and she doesn’t know how I feel. I haven’t exactly told her I love her yet. Maybe, one day, I’d like to ‘marry her,’ but that would be down the road, when we know more about each other and…and if Kara wants to. The ring isn’t meant to be a sign of upcoming marriage. I get that on Earth you wait a good deal of time, after being IN a relationship, to propose marriage. On Daxam, the ring is given right at the start of the relationship to show that it’s one based on love not obligation. That’s all.”

Alex had to nod at that, it made more sense now. If Mon-El got Kara a ring, her sister would flip and react very badly. But…she could see why Mon-El would want to get her one. All he had left of his planet was the customs he’d been raised with and this was clearly something really important to him that he wanted to share with Kara.

“You know, I’m not sure how much your research about this revealed, but there IS a thing called a promise ring on Earth.”

Mon-El turned to her. “A…Promise Ring?”

She smiled. “It’s something like what you said. It’s not an engagement ring, but it’s a ring that can be given at any point in a relationship. Some people say it’s also a promise to one day propose, but not everyone thinks that. It promises love, commitment, and devotion for those not ready for marriage yet. It’s a promise of a monogamous relationship. And it also lets people know someone is taken too.”

And Kara was just wholesome enough that she’d absolutely adore the idea of it.

Mon-El considered that before beaming…only for it to fall a moment later as he turned to her. “Do you think Kara would…like one?”

“Depends on which one you pick,” Alex actually teased him. “Kara has very specific tastes.” She waited till Mon-El’s expression fell more, before linking her arm through his. “Lucky for you, I know my sister better than she knows herself. Let’s go pick one out.”

The next day Alex would realize, for the first time, she was actually glad she’d ended up being the one to go shopping with Mon-El despite the crowd and lines and migraine that came with trying to pick out a promise-ring for Supergirl.

Because Kara’s face when she saw it, her expression when Mon-El explained what it was, and the tears in her eyes and kiss she’d given the man when she accepted were more than enough to make up for it.

(And she made sure to have her phone out and recording every single moment of it too. For science.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure if that's how the culture/customs were on Daxam, I could be completely wrong. But I'm just taking what I've inferred from mentions Mon-El gave and how he reacts to some situations (and made up the ring custom).


	9. Hanging Out with Friends

Mon-El was rushing around the kitchen, muttering under his breath about fajitas, much to Winn, James, Alex, and Maggie’s amusement. The four humans were sitting at a table, each with a beverage in hand though Alex was less than pleased that it was an herbal tea and not something a little “stronger” given that Mon-El was a bartender on the side. But it was infinitely more amusing to her, to all of them really, to see the man so panicked.

Maggie and Winn had taken pity and offered to help him with…whatever it was he was doing…but he’d insisted he had it under control.

It seemed that he did though, because he pulled his yellow apron off (yet another photo for Alex to add to her growing album) only moments later and began to bring bowl and plate of goodies into the living room where they were sitting.

There was so much food when he finished that they could barely find an empty space for their drinks. There were bowls of chips and dip, popcorn, pretzels, trail mix, nuts, even a fruit platter! There were plates piled high with little mozzarella sticks, quesadillas, fries, mini hotdogs, chicken wings, deviled eggs, cheese cubes, and a single carton of potstickers sitting right on the end. 

“Are we feeding an army?” James joked as he observed the food, knowing it wasn’t even the last of it as he didn’t see the fajitas among the various other nibbles.

“Yeah,” Alex had to agree. “I don’t even think Kara could eat all this…”

“Is it too much?” Mon-El frowned and observed the food, considering for the first time if it actually might be too much food that he’d gathered and prepared.

“Not for me!” Winn cheered, reaching forward to grab a handful of chips…only for Mon-El to slap his hand away in a move that sent Maggie into a giggle fit. “Hey!”

“You can’t eat that yet.”

“Why not?”

“We need to wait for…Kara!” he cheered suddenly, spinning around as the door to the apartment opened and the girl in question stepped in.

Kara stopped dead, her eyes widening as she took in the scene before her. All her friends were gathered together at her table, with copious amounts of food scattered around it making her mouth water at the delicious combination of smells. And Mon-El was there smiling at her softly.

“What’s going on?”

Mon-El walked over to her, gently taking her purse from her and coat to set aside before he took her hands in his. “I know you didn’t have a great day…”

That would be an understatement. 

She had posted a series of articles on her blog detailing the experiences of the aliens that CADMUS had kidnapped, wanting to get their story out so that others would be more aware and more ready to aid their alien neighbors if they saw any violence happening against them. She had wanted to give the aliens a voice, make them real people and not just some abstract concept to the humans.

Snapper had responded to her articles and left scathing critiques of them. It had been one thing for him to do that while she worked for him, he was the chief and she had to adapt her personal style to his likings. But this was HER personal blog, one she’d taken pains to remove any relation to CatCo to avoid lawsuits. He didn’t have to respond but he’d gone out of his way to demean her and belittle her talent. He had even gone so far as to claim her sources couldn’t be trusted because she only had one source per article, despite the fact she had both the account from that individual alien and Supergirl. It was an interview! It WOULD only have one source.

He’d gone on to say that her own personal feelings and view was coloring her article, that it was biased, that she was making the situation play out worse than it was by playing off people’s feelings.

Kara had been devastated to see such cutting remarks, and on ALL of her articles. Despite his best efforts to get her to not read Snapper’s remarks, or to focus on what every other review (all of them positive…except for one odd one that kept popping up about some sort of free pizza promotion going on), she just fixated on Snapper’s. The devastation had quickly turned to anger and she’d gotten ready at superspeed to storm down to CatCo and demand Snapper’s explanation for going out of his way to track down her work and slam it.

All the anger had then turned to sorrow and a shattered confidence when she’d called him later that day, just needing to vent about her meeting with Snapper. She had tried to call Alex, but decided not to as the woman was working, and Mon-El wouldn’t have had work to go in to till that evening. His heart had broken to hear the tears in her voice about how she was questioning if she was a good writer, if she was a decent person, if she was really writing the articles for the aliens’ benefit or to make her own name more popular and get more publicity for her site.

He’d wanted to go to her, but she’d said she wanted to be alone for a little. And he was really trying to do better at listening to her. 

Alex had smacked him on the back of the head when she got there and told him he was an idiot, because whenever Kara said she wanted to be alone, it really meant she wanted someone there to just hold her. But then she’d patted him on the shoulder and said that what he had planned, the reason he’d called them all there, would make up for that lapse in judgement.

After he’d hung up with Kara, he’d called Winn and the others and asked them if they could stop by Kara’s for a few hours that night.

“I wanted to do something to make you feel better,” Mon-El continued. “So…game night?”

Kara blinked at that, a smile starting to grow on her face as she squeezed his hands, glancing at the table once more and back at him. “You did all this for me?”

He nodded, feeling a little proud at how she was smiling now. “I called everyone in, made the food, got coverage for my shift, AND made sure to not let Alex near the alcohol.”

“Hey!” was Alex’s somewhat offended cry.

Kara couldn’t help but laugh at that, tugging Mon-El towards her to give him a tight hug, reveling in the fact that she could actually hug him with all her strength and not fear breaking him. It was twice as nice when he hugged her back and she could actually FEEL it.

“Thank you,” she whispered into his shoulder, beaming when he pressed a quick kiss to her nose as she pulled away.

“Anything for you, princess.”

Kara rolled her eyes at that, playfully shoving him away and heading over to the table, taking a seat Mon-El pulled out for her at the head of the table.

“Potstickers!” she cheered as she pulled the container towards her to pop one in her mouth.

“Oh, sure, don’t smack HER hand,” Winn muttered petulantly.

“What are we playing?” Kara looked around, grinning widely at Mon-El as he sat across from her.

Maggie smirked. “Ever heard of Cards Against Humanity?”

Just as Kara was about to respond, she crinkled her face in confusion. “Is something burning?”

Mon-El’s eyes widened and he jumped up, running to the kitchen with a cry of “My fajitas!”

(And later, Alex wouldn’t even care that she hadn’t had a drop of alcohol with all the pictures she took of Kara’s flaming red face when she had to read some of the cards.)


	10. With Animal Ears

“Woah!”

Kara actually jumped when Mon-El supersped towards her the second she arrived at the DEO to check in, winding his arm around her shoulder for a split second before speeding off again.

“Ok…” she began, before shaking her head, “What?”

Alex chuckled as she made her way over to her sister. “He got you too?”

“What?” Kara repeated as she looked at Alex.

“Damn,” Alex muttered, “I owe J’onn twenty bucks now.”

“What?”

“I bet you’d crush the phone before he could get one.”

“Alex, what is going on?!” Kara huffed, stepping away from her sister to face her, her hands on her hips in her Supergirl pose.

Alex gave her a look. “He didn’t text you?”

“Who didn’t text me?”

“Damn it!” Alex actually stomped her foot at that. “I am so off my game today! I owe Winn ten bucks now.” She pointed an accusing finger at a very confused Supergirl. “Are you lying to me, Kara? Did he text you? Did Winn tell you to lie and say he didn’t?”

“Alex, I have literally no idea what’s going on right now.”

Alex narrowed her eyes at her sister, observing her for a moment before sighing. “You really don’t.”

“I really don’t,” Kara repeated.

Alex rolled her eyes. “J’onn got Winn to set up a phone for Mon-El.”

“Well, that does make sense…” Kara began.

True, at first, Mon-El had just stayed at the DEO. He hadn’t needed a phone to communicate with anyone as he hadn’t been allowed to go anywhere nor had he really known anyone else. But as he slowly adapted to Earth, he had more people to talk to and more places to be. Off the top of her head Kara could think of her, Alex, Winn, Maggie, James, J’onn, all his coworkers, and, for some reason, Gertrude. Ah, yes, Gertrude, the elderly woman that lived at the end of the hall of her apartment who had taken quite a liking to Mon-El and always came knocking on the door to see if he would help her lift something or move something of find something or go with her to carry her groceries back or help move a box to her car or carry her trash down the stairs because “her old knees weren’t what they used to be.”

It wasn’t like she was annoyed or jealous. God no! Gertrude was old enough to be her great, great grandmother and she was the sweetest woman who always gave Mon-El cookies to bring back to the two of them for his help. (Alright, she was a tiny bit annoyed, but it was largely a very cute situation). Mon-El was always so ready to help the woman and he always politely faked a scrunch in his face when she would go to squeeze his cheek. She was so old that both of them doubted she realized the reason she wasn’t able to actually squeeze his cheek was due to him being an alien and not her feeble strength.

Still, he had other places he could be as well. The DEO, her apartment, Winn’s home, the bar, the local park, even James’s house a time or two.

He really had needed a phone if he was going to be a superhero. He could get called in at a moment’s notice (both at the DEO and at the bar) and he needed to be able to be reached.

“To give him a basic phone, yes,” Alex agreed with a note of exasperation in her voice. “And you would think, given how much he struggles with earth tech and how he sometimes forgets his strength, a sturdy flip phone would be better. But, oh no, Winn had to hook him up with a better model.” She looked at Kara as though her next words were going to be deadly serious. “He has APPS, Kara.”

Kara had to laugh at that. For how serious Alex appeared, an app was harmless. “Ok, and?”

“And? And!” Alex made a gesture of true exasperation, her hands waving in the air before slapping onto her legs. “And it’s getting ridiculous!”

Kara eyed her sister oddly before grinning slyly. “What did he do?”

Mon-El having an app wouldn’t have gotten Alex this worked up. There had to be something more.

“Nothing!”

The too-quick response and how Alex’s voice went up an octave tipped her off. Kara opened her mouth to bring that up but Alex had already turned to stalk off, shouting a “Deal with your boyfriend!” over her shoulder.

Kara shook her head in amusement but made her way through the DEO in search of Mon-El.

It actually wasn’t quite so hard to find him as she’d assumed. She literally followed the trail of increasingly confused and startled DEO workers till she reached the practice room. And there he was, Mon-El, sitting on one of the storage boxes, a wide grin on his face as he held his phone with a concentrated delicacy before his face.

Whatever app he was using must have been very enthralling because he didn’t even hear her enter nor seem to notice as she walked closer to him, he didn’t even flinch when she sat beside him and leaned against him. In fact, he only reacted to her presence when she spoke in his ear.

“Face Filter?”

Of all the apps she’d expected Mon-El to put on his phone, that was the very last one she’d ever expect.

Mon-El nearly jumped out of his skin though at the sudden noise. “Kara!” he shifted to face her, clutching the phone to his chest. “What are you doing here? I thought you had to check in with J’onn?”

“I can check in in a minute.” She tried to lean over more and look at his phone again. “Why do you have Face Filter?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have a phone now.” He held it up to her to see and she quickly snatched it out of his hand, grinning victoriously.

Her smile widened as she felt laughter bubble up in her at the collection of photos he had been going through from his Face Filter app. It was pretty much everyone in the DEO…with puppy noses and dog ears. Even SHE was there. Even J’ONN. (Wow was that disapproving non-smile more pronounced in that picture, the whole unamused vibe evident.)

It explained so much.

The confusion of the other DEO members, his sudden appearance and the faint snap sound she’d heard as he’d taken a picture, Alex’s irritation…

“Do I want to know?” She glanced at Mon-El.

Mon-El looked sheepish. “It was an accident?”

“That you took a picture of every member of the DEO with animal ears?”

He let out a huff of defeat, even to him that was a weak argument. “I overheard J’onn once talking about you. Something about puppy dog eyes…”

“It’s…”

“I know what it is now,” Mon-El cut in gently, reaching out to take the phone back. “It was the first thing I looked up on the internet once I had the phone. It’s great, I mean I won’t have to bother you guys all the time to explain things to me…”

“You’re NOT a bother.” Kara reached out to touch his shoulder.

He smiled softly at her for that. “I know I ask a lot of question though and this really helps me feel a little more...”

“Independent.” Kara finished. It wasn’t a question but a statement, she could remember the first time she’d been able to look things up on her own without needing to rely on the Danvers to help her understand the strange alien world she’d landed in.

“Yeah.” He nodded. “So, anyway, I looked up puppy dog eyes which, by the way, you DO have the best example of that I’ve ever seen.”

“Wait till you see me pout,” Kara teased, keeping it light.

Mon-El chuckled. “And there was this little side thing about puppy eyes and stuff, so I clicked on it and it downloaded this application.”

“You can just call it an app.”

“Right, an app. And suddenly I saw myself with puppy eyes and noses and ears and I thought it was great. I mean, puppies are a good thing here, I think?” Kara nodded. “And it made Winn laugh really hard when I showed him it to ask about it. And anything that can make Winn laugh can make YOU laugh. Even J’onn cracked a smile when I showed him a picture. So I thought it would be a good thing to keep, to cheer people up when they’re down.”

Kara smiled softly at that. “That’s a really great reason to use it.”

Mon-El looked down at the phone, his smile morphing just as soft and happy. Kara followed his gaze to see it was her picture with the markings of a golden retriever she’d imagine. The fact that her picture made Mon-El so happy made butterflies flutter in her stomach and she was sure her grin was dopey now.

“I think I want one of these pictures.”

“I can send you one,” he offered. “Winn showed me how and put in all the contacts I need. I sent one to Maggie as a test…”

Ok, now THAT explained why Alex was so flustered earlier.

“I um,” Kara hesitated, “I actually have a different picture in mind.”

“Oh?” Mon-El looked at her now.

Kara leaned in to take the phone from him, fiddling with it to get the app back up, and turned to him. She held the phone out at arms’ length and turned to rest the side of her head against Mon-El’s, the two of them looking at the camera, her with her golden puppy ears and Mon-El with his black ones.

(Alex would later swear up and down, much to Maggie’s amusement, that she was going to murder Mon-El for sending her over 100 pictures of people she worked with with various animal ears at 4 in the morning…but then again, she now had quite a few more of Kara and Mon-El to add to her growing collection.) 

(She couldn’t decide if her favorite was when Kara clearly surprised Mon-El by kissing him on the cheek during a photo or if she liked the one of the two of them just gazing at each other with dopey grins more.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Made up Gertrude. I feel like little old ladies would think Mon-El was a strapping young man though and being Kara's boyfriend would just encourage that :-)


	11. Wearing Kigurumis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No real dialogue in this chapter, more Kara's internal thoughts.

Kara was not at all shocked when the first thing Mon-El bought with his new credit card was a gift for her. Thanks to the DEO, he was in the legal system as Mike Matthews and with that came a slew of credit card companies wanting to sign him up. It had been a realistic thing, to her at the time, to sit down with him and actually apply for one. He had a job, yeah, but in today’s society, you needed some form of credit to do anything and, in an emergency, a credit card could help him out. So they’d worked out which one would be the best depending on interest rates and bonus points and so on.

And for all that he’d learned about Earth so far, he still had a long way to go. He absorbed everything like a sponge, she would agree with that, but had a bad habit of thinking that everything someone was telling him was how it was on Earth. Like at the bar, some regulars had said men only talk about their feelings in regards to monster trucks and such. Which was wrong. She always said he could come to her with any questions, but he always said he didn’t want to bother her and there were other sources available to him to get information.

A random woman at a kiosk in the local mall was not one of them.

She and Mon-El had now learned that lesson.

He’d been walking down the halls, window-shopping as Winn had explained it to him. It was a way for him to learn the value of different products without buying them. Just looking and taking them in, but NOT buying them.

Unless the woman at the kiosk managed to convince him that he absolutely HAD to buy her product or else his girlfriend would be devastated and break up with him because he wasn’t thoughtful enough.

Kara glanced down at what she was wearing with a sigh.

It was like an oversized adult pajama jumper…but patterned like an animal shape. It was an animal themed onesie.

A kigurumi, Mon-El had informed her.

Of course, he could pronounce “kigurumi” without issue but “anonymously” gave him pause.

The woman at the kiosk had told him it was all the rage and that every woman would want one, that only the most thoughtful of boyfriends would consider purchasing one and any man who didn’t would end up with a disappointed girlfriend because he didn’t buy her such an amazing gift. To not buy one was a guaranteed ticket to a breakup.

She partly blamed herself for that. She hadn’t exactly given Mon-El reason to think she WASN’T disappointed in him nor that she would break up with him over it. She hadn’t been exactly subtle with her disappointment in him in the past, it had made him feel like he wasn’t good enough for her and he always tried SO hard to be better, for her, to deserve her and it broke her heart to know that her actions and words and reactions to him so early on in their acquaintance would affect him so profoundly and so negatively this far into their relationship. Her recent bouts of breaking his heart hadn’t helped either. She already had three strikes against her and Mon-El would have had every right to just walk away and not want anything to do with her. She’d rejected him, somewhat cruelly, at his work where he couldn’t even leave without getting fired. Then she’d manipulated him and hurt him with what she said when Mxzy was around. And then she’d broken up with him over not admitting he was the Prince of Daxam (as though he would have trusted any of them at first, and then with the point being moot as there was no planet to be prince of, and his very clear shame at how the prince was thought to be…at her very, very clear disdain and dislike for said prince when she hadn’t known it was Mon-El she was talking about. She didn’t fault him, looking back on it, for not wanting to say. Just like with Alex coming out, she felt like she hadn’t exactly created a safe environment for Mon-El to feel he COULD tell her without fear of her reacting exactly how she had, if not worse.)

She hadn’t done much to make him think she’d stay with him if he “screwed up” again. (And god did it make her feel so ill that he thought of himself as a perpetual screw up because of how she reacted to his “failures” in the past, as though she hadn’t set impossible standards for him to meet during a time he should have been allowed to grieve for his planet.)

This gift just proved how scared he actually was that she’d break up with him again if he did the tiniest thing wrong. She tried not to think about if that's how he felt when he was growing up. Seeing how Rhea had acted towards her own son, towards her husband, what sort of abuse had Mon-El suffered that he just automatically thought HE wasn't good enough? What had he endured that he KEPT letting HER back in even after she repeatedly hurt him? She really didn't want to think about that last one.

And that was why she was standing there actually wearing it. She didn’t have the heart to tell him she actually wasn’t big on onesies and that she thought they were kind of dumb. If she told him THAT, he’d just think he’d failed again in actually TRYING to make her happy and that would kill her.

(And what a message that would send to him? That no matter what he did, his best would never be good enough for her. And she REFUSED to send that message.)

She picked at the sides of her oversized outfit and pulled the hood up. It wasn’t SO bad, she could give him that much. And the pouch of the Kangaroo onesie was convenient…even of the attached tail probably made it uncomfortable to sit down.

Plastering on a smile she turned and left her room to join Mon-El in the living room where he was setting up some treats for them to eat while they went through the rest of her queue.

She stopped short though when she spotted Mon-El…in a kigurumi of his own. It appeared to be a Dalmatian…she’d assume a cow would have larger black splotches and fake udders attached to it…and the large floppy ears on the hood gave it away too.

He looked absolutely adorable.

She had likened him to a lost puppy when he first came to Earth, and now she could see it that much clearer. And, in a way, a puppy fit him very well. Dogs were loyal, friendly, protective, and always there for you when you were sad, always excited when you came home, full of energy and always made her happy. Just like Mon-El.

She made her way over to him and slid her arms around his waist from behind, just taking a moment to bask in holding him tightly, feeling him pressed to her, his arms resting on top of her own, just knowing the night would be a great one despite the kigurumis they were wearing.

And later, as she was drifting off watching the TV, when he would ask if she liked the gift, she would say yes, her forehead remaining crinkle-free with the truth.

(…but despite that, much, much later, she would demand Alex burn the photos of the two of them wearing the kigurumis the woman had somehow (she REALLY needed to work out how) acquired.)

(Alex refused.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of a more melancholy chapter. I feel like the sorrows Mon-El experienced were never really given time to sink in or for him to work through them so I wanted to explore a little bit of Kara noticing things and wondering.


	12. Making Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this wasn't up yesterday! I previewed it to make sure it looked ok, but I think I hit "Save without Posting" instead of "Post" :-( But it's up now!

In hindsight, Mon-El’s fogged brain thought, getting drunk with Kara was probably not the best thing to do. He’d just finished with his shift at the bar and Kara had been there, hanging around, for the last half hour waiting for him. They were just going to hang out somewhere, get some dinner, then watch Netflix and chill, but ACTUALLY chill! When he’d used that phrase once to Kara, when he’d found out she had Netflix and he’d heard it used somewhere, he’d literally thought it meant just watch some shows and chill out. Apparently Earth was weird and a lot of the phrases used didn’t actually mean what they literally said. Since that moment he was always sure to say “and literally chill.”

But, as luck would have it, they’d decided to just stay at the bar. There was some sort of “pub quiz” that Kara wanted to experience. It was something the bar did every so often to help new aliens acclimate to Earth by offering quiz questions about Earth culture to help them learn. Kara hadn’t been allowed to actually participate because she had been on Earth so long, but she did try to offer him helpful hints. He hadn’t done too bad on his own.

He’d made the mistake of making a challenge out of it with Kara. For every right answer, Kara would take a shot, but for every wrong answer HE would take a shot. Kara had accepted as she’d figured he’d get more wrong than right. Overall though he’d gotten just about even, with a few more wrong than right.

And now they were both drunk and giggly as they stumbled their way back to Kara’s apartment.

He’d tried, he really was trying to be more responsible. Kara had made it clear to him that, one part of being a superhero was to be available at a moment’s notice. At any time a disaster could occur and a hero would be required. He wasn’t too sure the logic behind that was sound, because Kara had had a full time job at CatCo and couldn’t just drop everything at a moment’s notice too often or it would be suspicious. But he could understand the not getting drunk part. Being intoxicated made it hard to do anything and if someone’s life was on the line it would be devastating. Luckily, at some point in the night, he’d had the forethought to call Alex and make sure that the DEO knew neither he nor Kara would be in any state to save anyone for a few hours.

“SHHHH!” Kara put a finger to her lips in a very exaggerated whisper, that was more like a yell than anything.

Mon-El mimicked her actions, laughing behind his lips as she fumbled for the key to her apartment. He reached forward to wind his arms around her waist and lean on her while she worked, only for her to twist in his arms the second she got the key in the lock. She leaned in, surprising him when she pressed her lips to his, her one arm winding around his neck while her other remained on the key.

He kissed her back instantly, never ever one to deny her a kiss, the two of them getting lost in the sensation…when Kara suddenly was falling backwards.

He jumped forward, his arms around her tightening to catch her before she fell and he looked up to see she’d somehow gotten the door unlocked and it had started to open without them noticing.

“My hero.” Kara smiled up at him as he helped her stand up straight again.

“My princess,” he teased her back, walking the two of them into the apartment and shutting the door with his foot.

“Not a princess,” she murmured, moving up to try and kiss him again, only to miss and kiss his chin.

Mon-El was vaguely surprised when, instead of pulling away after she missed, Kara just continued to kiss along his jaw. This was so different from the last time they’d gotten drunk. They’d been giggly, sure, laughing and happy and high-fiving, but nothing like this. He wondered hazily if this was because they were together now. He wondered too if Kara had maybe liked him back then and was holding back then. But his thoughts quickly faded away as Kara nibbled on his ear.

His eyes fell closed at the sensation. “You are to me.”

Kara giggled in his ear, having kissed to the edge of his small sideburn. “Really?”

“Mhmm,” he hummed, turning his head to capture her mouth with his.

As their mouths melded together, he felt his heart speed up. He could feel hers beating against his chest just as fast, could hear her breathing quickly between kisses, could feel her arms tighten around her. The grip would have really hurt a human, crushed them even, broken quite a few bones, but with him…it felt wonderful. He could barely feel when other humans touched him, whether it was a pat on the back or a handshake. With Kara, he felt it, he felt that contact. And it was wonderful. Kissing her like this, was glorious.

He stumbled forward when Kara, with her tight grip, began to walk blindly backwards, but he wouldn’t break their growing kiss for anything, not even when they fell down onto the couch much like their first kiss had done.

This one felt different though, sloppy, messy, needy, less controlled. “Making out” was the term he’d use for it. From the movies he’d watched, that was the exact term. He would have been concerned, that in their drunken state, things could escalate.

(Alex had given him a very stern talk about how he should never, EVER take advantage of Kara when she was drunk after she’d witnessed just how little control Kara had when drunk. As though he’d EVER do that to anyone. Consent on Daxam had been one of the highest things of value. If someone did NOT want to seek sexual pleasure, they were never EVER forced to. It was about reciprocity and mutual pleasure, never about taking. To take something like that from an unwilling partner was punishable by death and any that might have managed to slip through the system were deemed the worst of society and treated like the worst pariah ever. He would never do that to someone he cared about, he’d never do that to someone he hated either or someone he wanted to hurt. It just was NOT done. He’d actually been quite offended when Alex implied he might do something of the sort and had actually given her a two hour long lecture about the expectations of pleasure on Daxam and the importance of consent. Alex had been mortified to sit through all of that, but in the end they had both understood each other.)

(That and Alex scared him.)

He would have been concerned, but Kara was giving him no signs that she wanted it to escalate more. She seemed content, to lay there on the couch and just keep kissing. The last time, and every time before that, he had always made very sure that Kara either made the first move or that he gave her plenty of time to back away or tell him to stop.

When he’d kissed her at the DEO when he’d been dying, granted he could genuinely only vaguely recall it given he was dying at the time. But he could recall it felt like it took forever to reach her lips. He knew he’d leaned in slowly enough for her to stop him or pull away or leave. She hadn’t. Any time after that, he waited till there was a clear sign that Kara was responding and agreeable to being kissed, or that she kissed him first, or that she was alright with being kissed. If he did kiss her first, he was always watching her face to make sure she was ok with it. He made it his duty to observe her for any crinkles or other signs she wasn’t happy. The second he saw anything like that, he’d pull back, of course he would. 

The last time on the couch, he hadn’t known where Kara wanted it to go, so he’d just kissed her. When they fell onto the couch and she didn’t push him off, so they stayed there. But she had been the one to start unbuttoning his shirt. She had been the one to take his hand and lead him to her room. And she had been the one to explain to him what a “condom” was. Honestly, he would have been fine just sleeping beside her with less clothes on, but once she explained the concept and reason for condoms, he knew what she wanted. 

This time, she was just kissing him and kissing him and kissing him, and that was fine with him, more than fine.

He would gladly “make out” with Kara till the end of time if he could. He never felt more alive and less alone than when he was with her. He never felt more loved than when she opened herself up to him like this, when she made herself vulnerable and soft.

And if, quite a while later, their desperate kisses slowly morphed into lazy kissing, and then pecking, and then, between one kiss and the next, falling asleep in each other’s arms, he would be just as happy with that.

(At least this time, Alex having a photo of them wasn’t a mystery. She’d woken them up by banging pots together when they both failed to arrive at the DEO bright and early…after she snapped a picture of them of course.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still not 100% on what Daxam customs would be, but for a planet of "hedonists" I feel like even THEY would have boundaries and rules to go by when it comes to activities. If it's all about pleasure, I feel like taking that from someone that doesn't want it would not make for a pleasurable experience for either party and would create a very terrible experience for one side that would negatively affect them in other future experiences, which would just create a cycle of non-pleasure. So I feel like despite being "hedonists" they would value consent and mutual agreement over activities.


	13. Eating Ice Cream

“Yes!”

The cheer was so loud and unexpected that Mon-El actually flinched as he turned around to see Kara standing in the training room and clapping for him. He looked back at the small course he’d run to see how he’d done, and gaped. He’d managed to complete it without ANY cardboard fatalities! Even J’onn’s board was still standing.

He couldn’t help the wide smile that made its way onto his face as Kara ran over to him and hugged him tightly. “I did it!”

“You did!” she cheered, pulling away a moment later to smile up at him. “You finished the course and did well!”

“Well I had a good teacher,” he praised.

Kara rolled her eyes playfully at that, stepping just one back to give them space. “This calls for a celebratory ice cream!”

Mon-El blinked at that. “What?”

“You know, I scream, you scream, we all scream for Ice Cream?”

He just stared, before frowning, seeming deeply concerned. “Who is this ice cream and why is everyone screaming? Is he an alien enemy? A metahuman? Why would he be celebrating if…”

“Ice cream,” Kara cut in with a guilty wince. “It’s a delicacy on earth. A food,” she explained, “It’s a thick, frozen milk mixed with sugar and different flavors. Usually it’s a treat.”

“Oh.” Mon-El nodded, that made much more sense. “Where do we acquire this ice cream?”

Kara linked her arm with his and turned to lead him out of the room. “There’s a few places. There are shops scattered around that sell exclusively ice cream. Some restaurants serve it after meals. Grocery stores sell containers of them to take home with you. Other people make their own. But…” she grinned slyly and leaned in to whisper, far lower than any non-alien would be able to hear, “I have a secret stash right here.”

“Ooh,” Mon-El teased, “Is Supergirl not sharing?”

Kara shook her head with a laugh. “Alex knows about it, and if she knows, J’onn probably does too. But no one else does. It’s sort of like my own private treat. J’onn allows it and makes sure no one eats it because of all the hard work I do with the alien threats. So I’m not technically not sharing…”

“You’re just keeping the location a secret,” Mon-El reasoned. “You can’t not-share something people don’t even know about.”

“Exactly!” Kara turned a corner, leading him towards a door at the end of a hall and pausing. She squinted, using her x-ray vision to make sure no one else was in there before guiding him in. It was the DEO’s small kitchen. They had their own cafeteria for all the workers, but this was a small break room for people to keep some food items and coffee. She walked over to the large refrigerator and pulled the top part open. “A-ha!” 

Mon-El stepped closer at her exclamation to see her pulling out what looked like a plain brown cylinder with a top on it made of some sort of paper. “Is this normally what the ice cream containers look like?”

Kara flushed. “It’s part of its camouflage,” she explained. “I put it in a generic container so no one gets curious to see what’s in it. If it doesn’t look like an ice cream carton, most people ignore it.”

She moved over to a small drawer and opened it, taking out two spoons and sitting down at one of the small tables, gesturing for Mon-El to join her. He took a seat, taking the proffered spoon from her and waiting till she popped the lid off the ice cream to reveal a smooth, light-brownish frozen mush halfway down the container.

“For a job well done, you can have the first taste.”

Mon-El hesitated, the lumpy frozen mess didn’t really look appetizing at all. But he reached in anyway, Kara’s wide smile too much for him to say no to, and scooped out a part of the mush that was surprisingly easy to maneuver. It wasn’t as solid as it appeared.

He didn’t put it in his mouth though, examining it closely as Kara watched, sniffing it cautiously…

“Is it normally this color?”

Kara snorted. “This batch is flavored. Usually it’s a white color.”

“And what flavor is this?”

“It’s called caramel,” she offered, amused at his hesitancy. “Just try it. And if you don’t like that one, we can go out later to an ice cream parlor and try samples till you find one you like.”

Mon-El eyed her a moment before shrugging and pushing the spoon into his mouth to eat the ice cream.

Kara watched him intently as he got used to the flavor, and beamed when his eyes went wide and he gave her a brilliant smile. “Like it?”

“This is really good!” He moved in to take another scoop, but Kara pulled it back.

“My turn!” she cheered, taking a scoop for herself before offering him the carton once more.

They probably should have stopped after a few scoops, she really didn’t like going through the ice cream she had stashed so quickly, preferring to make it last. But the delight on Mon-El’s face and his eager questions about all the other flavors of ice cream were too much for her. They ate the entire thing in minutes…and then she had to explain that, while Mon-El’s head felt like it was about to explode, that was perfectly normal and called a “brain freeze” and wasn’t some telepathic alien trying to murder him.

(And later she would turn a bright red when Alex, who had walked in on them just finishing the treat, showed her the latest picture she’d taken: the two of them looking at her with caramel ice cream smeared all over their lips and around their mouths. Apparently Superhumans were super messy eaters when it came to ice cream and trying to out eat each other.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Caramel" Ice Cream ;-)


	14. Power Swap

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally the prompt for Day 14 was "Genderswap" but there was interest expressed about the hour or two that Mon-El and Kara's powers were swapped and I thought that would be a really interesting "swap" chapter. Forgive me anyone looking forward to a genderswap, I hope this makes up for it though!

Mon-El walked up to Kara’s side as the two of them stood near the entrance of the DEO, waiting for Alex and J’onn to arrive. There had been a flare in the sky, like a small meteorite, that had landed a few miles away from the DEO base. Kara had been ready to fly out there and make sure it wasn’t an alien invasion, but J’onn had held her back. Winn had confirmed it was far too small to be anything like that, scans as it was falling revealed it was really a small piece of space rock. J’onn hadn’t wanted to risk that it was some sort of Kryptonite based object and decided he and Alex would go collect it.

Kara had not been pleased to be benched for that mission, despite how mundane it was, and had been pacing the DEO restlessly till they’d gotten word the extraction went well and the team was returning.

“Alex will be fine,” Mon-El murmured in her ear as he wound an arm around her waist. 

Kara offered him a smile for that, but turned to face the entrance as Alex and J’onn walked in. “What have we got?”

“Well, NOT Kryptonite,” Alex reassured her, stepping up with a metal box and placing it on a table while J'onn headed off to sign them all back in. She knew that Kara wouldn’t stop pestering them till she at least SAW the rock before they ran tests on it to determine its origins.

“That’s a relief,” Mon-El agreed, the two of them stepping beside her to observe.

Alex popped the lid and turned the box to show the aliens a small lump sitting there. It was misshapen and ovalish, but also glowing a faint green. It was similar to kryptonite, but not the same green glow, more like a sickly yellow-green and pulsing.

“We just need to run some more tests and…”

“Um,” Mon-El cut in with a frown, pointing at the rock. “Should it be doing that?”

Alex waved him off. “It’s been pulsing like that since we got it.”

“No, Alex.” Kara herself pointed at the rock. “Look!”

Alex looked down at the box to see that the rock was indeed pulsing, but getting faster and faster by the second. She quickly moved to slam the lid shut but it was too late.

The second the rock reached a speed that it seemed to be nothing but a glow, a pulse shot out of it, knocking Kara and Mon-El back, but no one else.

Kara and Mon-El slid across the room, tumbling into the wall behind them.

“Kara!” Alex ran to her sister’s side. “Kara are you ok!?”

“Ow,” Kara grunted as she slowly pushed herself up. She immediately looked over at Mon-El, letting out a relieved breath to see him stirring and getting up as well. “I’m fine,” she reassured Alex as she stood, moving to pat Alex on the arm…

Only for Alex to stumble away with a wince. “Ow, Kara!” Alex huffed. “Watch the strength.”

Kara frowned and looked down at her hand in confusion. She’d used her normal amount of strength when it came to humans so why had it seemed to be too much for Alex this time.

“Sorry,” she apologized anyway, shaking her head and running a hand through her hair. “That rock must have disoriented me or something.”

“Um, I think it did more than that,” came Mon-El’s voice.

The two looked over to where he’d been standing, only to see he wasn’t there anymore. 

“Up here!”

They looked up, eyes widening when they saw him floating in the air and getting higher. He was moving and wiggling, akin to how a human would react as they tried not to slip on the ice, but in the air.

“Oh my gosh!” Kara ran forward to try and grab him before he floated too far away…but seemed to overshoot it and ran into the wall behind him. “What?!”

Alex shook herself out of her shock and hurried over, jumping up to grab Mon-El’s foot, trying to drag him down with her weight, but it didn’t seem to work, just serving to carry her up into the air too. “Kara!”

Kara looked around frantically for something to help before trying to jump up and help her sister, figuring her weight as a Kryptonian might help, and ended up smacking her head on the ceiling from the force of her jump. She fell back towards the ground, momentarily stunned, but Mon-El reached out and caught her in his arms just in time.

Luckily it seemed their combined weight was enough to lower him to the ground. 

“What is going on here?” J’onn’s voice rang out as he rushed over to the commotion they were making.

“I have no idea,” Kara told him, keeping her arms around Mon-El’s neck as he kept a firm grip on her waist, neither risking letting go for fear he might start to float again.

“I was showing them the rock,” Alex explained. “It was pulsing erratically and by the time we realized it was abnormal, it fired out a pulse that took these two out and then this…” she gestured at the two of them sitting on the ground, “Happened.”

“What IS this?” Mon-El shook his head, getting frustrated, his arms tightening on Kara. “Why was I floating? Why was Kara losing control of her powers?”

“I was NOT losing control,” Kara began to defend.

“You ran into a wall,” Mon-El turned to her, before focusing on J’onn, feeling himself getting angry at how much Kara had hurt herself in those few moments, “You hit your head on the ceiling, and I know you’re feeling guilty for shoving Alex and…”

Whatever he was about to say was cut off when, out of nowhere, laser beams shot out of his eyes just barely skimming the top of J’onn’s head and taking out one of the lights on the ceiling, creating a hole in it. He quickly shut his eyes the second he realized HE was causing it.

“What the hell!?” Alex demanded, she and J’onn having ducked down, Kara moving out of the way of the beams just in time.

“That was MY heat vision,” Kara realized, staring at the ceiling. She’d seen news footage of herself enough times to know what it looked like. “And…and my flying?” She turned towards Alex, question in her eyes.

“And Mon-El’s strength, superspeed, and jumping,” Alex muttered, working it out.

J’onn frowned. “The pulse, you said it hit just them?” He looked at Alex, who nodded. “It seems it swapped your abilities.”

Mon-El let out a breath. “How do I stop the heat vision?” he asked. Of all the powers Kara had, that seemed to be the most deadly for him to not control at the moment.

“The first time I used it, I was angry,” Kara recalled. “That’s how it manifests, my anger and frustration triggered it till I could learn to use it. Just…calm down?”

“That’s a little hard to do at the moment,” Mon-El muttered.

Kara gave him a sympathetic look for that, she could practically feel his tension in how stiff he was with his arms around her, his heart racing against her body. She turned to her sister, “You two go and find out where the rock is from, see if you can’t work out what happened and if it’s permanent. I’ll stay here and help him calm down.”

Alex and J’onn exchanged a look at that before nodding and heading off.

Kara waited till they’d disappeared with the rock before turning to Mon-El, reaching out to cup his face with her hands. “It’ll be alright,” she reassured him.

Mon-El swallowed hard. “What if it's permanent?”

Kara considered that for a minute or two. “Then we get to learn how to control our new powers together,” she said simply. An impish smile grew on her face. “Maybe it’ll finally give you a fighting chance against me, we’d both be newbies.”

Mon-El, however, was quiet.

Kara frowned. “What’s wrong?”

Mon-El took a deep breath through his nose as he felt her gently stoking his cheeks, trying to sooth him. “I just…I don’t want new powers.”

“I know you were just starting to get a grasp of yours,” Kara cut in gently, “But it’ll be easier to learn my powers at least. I can give you more tips and tricks and I’ll know exactly how to control them to help teach you. I should be able to pick up on yours pretty quick too since I have experience having powers already and…”

“That’s not why I don’t want new powers, YOUR powers,” Mon-El corrected her. 

Kara’s frown returned. “Why don’t you want my powers?”

“I want MINE,” he explained, leaning in to rest his head against hers in a move she knew helped calm him down. “The powers you have on Earth are because of being a Kryptonian. The powers I have are because I’m a Daxamite. Does it make me that much more Dax…selfish,” he corrected quickly, though Kara caught his slip, “That I want the powers I have because they come from MY planet?”

“No.” Kara shook her head, closing her eyes as she rested her forehead more firmly to his. “It makes perfect sense.”

And it did. Mon-El didn’t have much left from his planet, literally nothing but his memories, customs, and the abilities the yellow sun granted him which were a literal reflection of his home planet. His powers were different from hers because they were different species so they had different abilities because of it. IT made perfect sense that he associated his specific powers with his home planet. Having HER powers were like having Kryptonian powers and he was not a Kryptonian.

She hadn’t missed his slip of the tongue either though. Her heart ached for him that he associated something quite human with Daxam in such a negative way. She knew she hadn’t helped it by calling him selfish in the same breath as reminding him she saw him as such because he was a Daxamite. She hadn’t thought he’d picked up on it. She’d have to work on bringing up his better qualities in association with Daxam.

They fell silent for a moment, till Kara pulled away to gaze at him. “Try opening your eyes now.”

He shook his head. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Here…” she reached out and gently turned his head so he was looking at the floor beside them. “You’re clear.”

Mon-El hesitated but took a deep breath and opened his eyes, slumping with relief when no lasers shot out of them. “Thanks,” he turned back to her.

“No problem.” Kara beamed, just looking into his eyes . Suddenly they widened as a thought struck her. “I shoved Alex.”

“Don’t think about that,” Mon-El began to rub her arms with his hands in a soothing motion, “It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know our powers were swapped and…”

“And it took more effort to restrain your strength than mine,” Kara cut in.

“Yeah.”

Kara’s eyes narrowed.

“You’re making the crinkle again.” Mon=El frowned at that, growing concerned. “What did I do now? Can you at least tell me what I did wrong first before you yell at me so I can apologize?”

Kara poked him in the chest with as much force as she felt safe to muster and let out an angry huff through her nose when Mon-El actually flinched from the contact, his hand coming up to rub the spot with enough strength that she knew he was really rubbing it.

“How long have you been holding back on me!?” she demanded.

Mon-El blinked. “What?”

“I used MY normal-for-humans strength when I shoved Alex,” Kara explained, “And she stumbled because it was too forceful. Which means YOU, Mr. I-live-to-hit-the-mat, are actually STRONGER than I am!”

“I…might be?” Mon-El offered after a minute of enduring her glare.

“Why were you holding back then!?” Kara smacked his shoulder for that, feeling the wince he gave her at how much it probably actually HURT him was deserved, “You could have actually given me a challenge during training if you hit me like that!”

“Because I don’t want to hit you!” Mon-El shouted, though it wasn’t an actual shout but more a slightly raised voice to get over her barrage of words.

“Mon-El.” Kara rubbed her forehead, “I can’t train you to control your strength if you’re holding back on me! I need to know your full range so I can help you adapt and play human. And I’d train you with more daring if I knew you could actually take the hits that much harder. And I’m not exactly fragile! You CAN hit me and I’ll just be winded or bruised but it won’t be a bad thing for me to learn from a hit or two.”

“I don’t want to hit you,” Mon-El repeated, his tone taking on a different note she couldn’t quite place. “I don’t want to hit anyone.”

“Our enemies will,” she reminded him. “They’ll hit you and they’ll hit me and you need to hit them back. The only way you’re going to learn how to fight is if you actually try to hit me. I can adapt our training to fit with your strength but…”

“I’ll hit our enemies, but I won’t hit you.”

“Mon-El, I JUST told you…”

“That you can take a hit, I know!” the snap in his voice gave Kara pause. It was a tone she was coming to associate with how he spoke when he said something she just wasn’t LISTENING to. “That doesn’t mean I want to hit someone I love! I’m not…”

He cut himself off suddenly and looked away, quickly closing his eyes again as he felt the heat vision coming this time.

Kara reached out tentatively, touching his jaw and turning his face back to her. “Just tell me Mon-El. Whatever it is, I’m listening now.”

Mon-El swallowed but didn’t speak. So Kara remained silent, waiting, wanting him to know she WAS listening, that she’d heard him and she was going to HEAR him now.

It could have been minutes or a half hour before he opened his eyes again, a look in them that broke her heart even though she couldn’t name what the emotion in them was.

“It’s always a bad thing to be hit just to learn something,” he spoke quietly, almost too quietly for a human to hear. “And people who love you should never, ever hit you, for any reason, even training.”

“Mon-El,” Kara breathed, feeling tears gather in her eyes. “If that’s how you felt, why didn’t you tell me earlier? If you were uncomfortable with me hitting you, even for training, we could have found some other way…”

The implication that she was admitting she DID love him wasn’t lost on either of them, but Mon-El, thankfully, kept silent about it. Kara hadn’t outright said it to him, and he wasn’t going to push her or make her uncomfortable about it.

“I never said I was uncomfortable with you hitting me.”

Kara had never felt her world crumble around her so fast in her life, not even when Krypton was being destroyed. Because what Mon-El had just said, what he revealed, what she’d actually HEARD…it was devastating.

It was bad to be hit to be taught something, people who love you shouldn’t hit you, but he wasn’t feeling like there was anything actually WRONG when she hit him which meant he was used to it and...

She felt sick.

Because that sort of talk, the look in his eyes, told her so much.

“Were…were you hit?” her voice broke just trying to get the words out.

Mon-El’s silence said everything.

Kara immediately leaned in, not even caring about the change in strength as she hugged him with all her might, tears in her eyes gathering at the revelation.

Mon-El had told her his father wasn’t a good man. He’d even mentioned in passing, once or twice, that his mother wasn’t any better, but in different ways than his father. She could imagine, hearing about the Gabrine incident, that his father likely psychologically and mentally abused him, while his mother was the sort that physically and emotionally abused him. He was abused as a child, that much was clear, he was hurt by the people who he loved and who were supposed to love him, to teach him lessons. 

She honestly didn’t want to ask if she was correct in her thoughts. She never ever wanted him to have to think about that time in his life ever again.

And she felt ill at the thought of what Mon-El must have felt every time she teased him in training, when she’d slam him onto the mat, or gloat ever so slightly about her abilities and strength and skill. Even worse after they’d begun dating. Because then it was clear she felt something more for him…and she still hit him. It was for training, OF COURSE, she would never ever hit him outside of the training room or their sparing. But the thought that Mon-El had been holding back because he DIDN’T want to hurt her, because he was expected to hit her, but couldn’t bring himself to do it, because he loved her and he’d learned from his own experiences real love meant you didn’t hit the person you loved…everything he’d learned had taught him against what she did to him in training.

He held back so not to hurt her. He didn’t throw punches during training and ended up meeting the mat because he couldn’t hit someone he loved. He let her win because it was better she be ok than hurt by him.

“I will never lay a finger on you again,” she swore into his neck.

“Well,” Mon-El spoke, his tone telling her he was going to try and joke the seriousness away. “I hope you WILL lay some fingers on me, what you did with your fingers last night was…”

“OK,” she pulled back, putting a hand on his mouth to silence him, unable to help but laugh at his efforts. He certainly knew the exact route to take to erase the severity of the situation instantly. “No talk about that at work.”

“But AFTER work?” he wiggled his eyebrows at her.

“After work, we’re going to talk about a new training regime for you,” she told him seriously, giving him a look not to question her. She was promising him in that look not to ask questions, not to pry, not to force him to talk about something he clearly didn’t want to speak of if he couldn’t even outright tell her what happened to him, but she was promising him she was going to reconsider how she’d been training him and find a way that worked better for him going forward.

Maybe letting him “spar” with some more superstrengthed alien criminals they’d apprehended in a secure location would work better? She’d figure it out.

Mon-El smiled gently at her, pressing a kiss to her palm. “Thank you.”

She smiled at him, leaning in, sliding her hand to his cheek and resting her forehead to his. “You’re welcome.” She pressed a kiss to his lips, a smirk morphing from her smile. “And…after talking…” this time SHE wiggled her eyebrows in suggestion.

Mon-El couldn’t help but glance her Supergirl outfit before lifting his head to smirk at her teasingly. “Let’s hope they find a way to reverse this before the x-ray vision kicks in or we’ll never make it to that talking part.”

Kara’s little mock-offended squeal at his words was cut off by Mon-El pressing a kiss to her lips, a kiss that eventually led to Kara regaling him with stories of the funny situations and messes she’d gotten herself into as she discovered her powers on Earth as a child to help keep his mind off the swap and their serious talk.

Alex, who had come to inform them that, from what they could tell the swap shouldn’t be permanent… of course had to chime in at the most embarrassing time and inform Mon-El that no, Kara had NOT in fact discovered her x-ray vision one white Christmas morning when she was so excited to know what was in her presents and HAD, in fact, discovered it at school during a football game that had her burying her face in her hands, flushing, and unable to look anyone in the crowd or team in the face for weeks after the underwear-incident as the Danvers had come to call it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little longer of a chapter, but the part about Mon-El's past sort of got in there and ran away with the chapter. I feel like, despite what we saw of Lar Gand, there HAD to be something done in Mon-El's past that made him consider his father a bad enough man he would run from him if he saw him. And we all saw that Rhea was emotionally manipulative/abusive and physically too. I wanted to include something in there about a guess to what his home life might have been like growing up. 
> 
> I also am just theorizing that Mon-El MIGHT actually be stronger than Kara. With all the powers she has, I feel like Mon-El might have gotten the short straw of powers. Being so similar to a Kryptonian and having so few powers seemed a little weird to me. So I thought, maybe the powers he does have that we know of, maybe some of them are more powerful than Kara's. I feel like, in training, we never really see HIM hit HER but always him getting thrown to the mat. Maybe he was holding back? Because his mother smacked him and he didn't retaliate, he didn't hit her back or react, so maybe he was just used to being hit?
> 
> And yes, he DID attack Kara when he first woke up, but he didn't love her then. He just came from his planet's destruction with a very visible Kryptonian (judging by the House of El glyph on her chest) standing over him, hooked up to machines, in a place where people with guns came at him for trying to leave. I feel like that would be a natural reaction to such a shock, to wake up and escape, attack anyone you need to to get out (like Thor in the first movie and so on). Even when Kara came after him, I feel like we've seen him fight people he has no feelings for just fine, but once he starts to fall for Kara, I feel like he wouldn't be able to hurt her. (He couldn't even "hurt" Winn by escaping when Winn was drunk, like Winn expected of him, and I feel like, by then, he at least thought Winn was a good guy. He couldn't let CADMUS hurt who he thought was "J'onn" when he thought they captured him. So I feel like he wouldn't hurt someone he cared for even a little.)
> 
> So, very long note here, apologies for that. I just wanted to get that off my chest and offer a little explanation for some scenes/suppositions in the chapter :-)


	15. In a Different Clothing Style

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might be a little bit of a cheat for the prompt, but I kept going back to a specific time where sweet Kara Danvers definitely did not dress like the ball of sunshine that she is and certainly didn't act like it. I'm sure you can guess what might cause such a "different clothing style" for Kara in this chapter though ;-)

Mon-El was the first to notice.

Alex would, at the beginning, kick herself for not realizing, for not seeing the signs especially after last time. But, after the fact, she would be glad there was another person out there who knew Kara well enough to know when something was off.

*************************************************************************************************************************************

Mon-El was standing beside Alex in the DEO, talking to her about his “new” supersuit. Or, he supposed, his original supersuit that they’d discovered after his last one had been swapped out. He was somewhat teasing her, making sure that this was the real deal she was giving him this time. Alex was probably an inch away from breaking her hand trying to punch him, when Mon-El suddenly stopped talking.

“Is it laundry day?”

Alex looked up at him from where she’d been trying to ignore him and focus on a report, to see him frowning at something. She followed his gaze to see Kara striding into the DEO in a long-sleeved black dress with dark mesh leggings and boots up to her knees.

“What do you mean?” She glanced at him.

“I didn’t know Kara even owned that much black,” was all Mon-El said with a shrug. “It’s weird to see her wearing dark colors instead of pink and yellow and, you know, happy colors. Hold on,” he glanced around, “That’s not J’onn is it?”

Alex snorted. “No. J’onn doesn’t have that much of a fashion sense. Why?”

“She’s not walking like Kara does either,” Mon-El pointed out. “But, then again, I’ve never seen her wear those boots either, it could be that.”

Alex paused at that comment and glanced back at her sister once more. It was…true, looking at it now. Kara was exuding some sort of aura that just didn’t say “Kara Danvers” but it didn’t say “Supergirl” either. A sinking feeling started to form in her gut the closer Kara got and the clearer she could see Kara’s expression and body language. She tensed as Kara glanced over at them, about to call out to one of the other DEO members a certain code they had created after last time, knowing they’d need to get Kara down and fast before the situation could get worse…

But then Kara caught sight of Mon-El and it was like a switch flipped.

Alex watched, nearly sagging in relief, when Kara’s entire countenance brightened, the woman sending a wide beam at the man beside Alex. Kara seemed to try and sprint towards him as much as she could in the boots, throwing her arms around Mon-El’s neck and hugging him tightly, swaying in place.

No, no this wasn’t the same situation, Alex realized with near palpable gratefulness.

“Hey,” Mon-El spoke to Kara in a hushed murmur neither alien seemed to realize she could still hear.

“I woke up alone, not fair.” Kara pulled away slightly to pout up at him.

Mon-El chucked, tucking a strand of Kara’s loose hair behind her ears. “You know J’onn makes me spend at least one night here,” he casually reminded her.

Kara rolled her eyes in annoyance. “You should just move in permanently.”

Alex blinked at that. “Kara, really?”

Kara looked over, her lips pursing in displeasure at Alex’s tone. “What’s wrong with wanting my boyfriend to live with me?” she seemed about to put her hands on her hips in her pre-attack pose, but  
Mon-El wound his arms around her waist from behind and Kara leaned into him instead, resting her arms over his own.

“Nothing.” Alex held her hands up in surrender. 

If she was being honest…there really wasn’t anything wrong with it. She always thought there would be though. She always thought, as the elder sister, she’d be a little on edge and against Kara ever living with another person, a man, her boyfriend at that. She almost felt like she wasn’t doing her job as big sister properly that she didn’t even feel the need to really argue with Kara over it.

She…trusted Mon-El, as odd as it sounded given their first interactions and her opinion of him. But he really had worked hard to change and be someone that deserved Kara. And she knew, she could hear it in how he spoke of Kara, of himself, of their relationship, he didn’t think he’d ever be good enough to deserve her. And that was…good. To her. Like Jeremiah had said once, he never thought any many would be good enough for her so Maggie was perfect. To her, it was the same thing, no one would be good enough for her baby sister. But to have a man that believed that and strove to BE that regardless, she could tell Kara would ultimately be safe with Mon-El. And if Kara, who was an adult, wanted to live with the man, then…she’d support it.

Kara smirked at that. “Good.” 

Alex chuckled and shook her head, turning to head off and give J’onn the report she’d reviewed, leaving the two aliens to their quiet discussion.

Mon-El leaned forward to rest his chin on Kara’s shoulder, watching as Alex walked away, before he turned and pressed a kiss to Kara’s cheek.

Or, at least, what would have been Kara’s cheek had she not turned her head lightning fast and caught his lips with her own instead.

His eyebrows shot up at that, his eyes closed as he kissed her back, letting her twist in his hold to face him. He nearly let out a moan when she deepened the kiss, more startled that she was allowing so much PDA (PBA? PBJ? He wasn’t sure) in the DEO. She was normally very against such a prolonged thing in their places of work. It was a pleasant surprise, don’t get him wrong, but a startling one.

“Hey,” he breathed as he pulled away slightly, unable to help smiling when Kara tried to chase his lips, her hands moving from around his neck where they’d settled to stroke his cheeks. “Are you sure about this?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” she murmured, leaning in slightly and turning her head to kiss his cheek, “I want to kiss you,” and kiss his jaw, “So I’m going to kiss you,” and kiss his neck.

She nuzzled her nose into his neck, nearly feeling his pulse with the tip of her nose, and breathed deep, filling her senses with his scent. It was so strong, for some reason, she could tell he was there the moment she’d arrived. She knew where he was just by the smell. It was a delicious combination of coffee, cinnamon, and sugar to her, addicting really. She couldn’t get enough of it. She’d even slept in one of his shirts he’d left behind just to feel like he was there with her.

When she’d first stepped in, she’d been momentarily confused. It was almost like his scent was coming from a different direction. But it was such a faint trace and she could soon SEE him standing by Alex that she must have just been thinking too hard…

“You need to stop that,” he warned lightly as he felt her start to nibble on his neck and suck slightly.

“Don’t want to.”

His heart nearly stopped when she bit down harder, just barely suppressing a groan. “Kara…”

“Mon-El…”

He closed his eyes tightly at the tone of her voice. It was breathy, almost whiney, with a hint of a moan in it. She sounded just like she had their first night together.

“If you don’t stop Kara, I’m not going to be able to either.”

“Good.”

He frowned a little at that, managing to pull himself away to look at her, her irises blown wide as she smiled up at him. “Are you feeling ok?”

“I feel wonderful,” she reassured him.

“Because this isn’t like you,” he continued. “Normally you tell ME to stop.”

“And that’s just it.” She looped her arms around his neck again. “I love you, I don’t want you to stop. I missed you so much last night, Mon-El. I had this dream, and I woke up just…aching…”

He swallowed hard, feeling his heart racing at her words, but fixating more on how she’d finally said she loved him, out loud, in those exact words.

“I love you, too.”

Kara smiled up at him. “I just want to be with you, Mon-El. Don’t you want to be with me?”

“Always.”

“All the time?”

“Yes.”

“Anywhere and everywhere?”

“Of course.”

“Even here?”

He paused at that, “Kara are you…”

“You still have a private room here, don’t you?” she smirked teasingly, looking up at him from beneath her eyelashes.

“It has cameras in it.”

“And I have heat vision.”

“If the footage cuts out they’ll think I’m murdering you and break down the door.”

“Oh no they won’t.”

“How can you know?”

“I’ll make sure it’s VERY clear what we’re about to do before the cameras go down.”

“You’re seriously saying we should…do that…in the DEO?”

There was something wrong here, he could tell it, he really could…but with each passing moment, with each touch Kara bestowed upon him, every alluring glance she delivered, every word she said, that little voice trying to shout out warnings to him grew fainter and fainter. Because she loved him. She’d just said she loved him, and he really would like nothing more than to consummate that final measure of their declaration to each other. He just wanted to celebrate their love, the fact that she DID love him back, that she’d finally said it.

Kara merely smirked and trailed her hands down his shoulders, arms, and to his hands, turning to tug him away with a strut in her steps and a swing to her hips that had him captivated…

*************************************************************************************************************************************

Mon-El jerked awake to the sound of blaring alarms and flashing red lights. Even being on Earth so short a time, alarms and flashing lights were never a good thing. He jumped up, stumbling slightly from how his body seemed to still want to sleep. He’d been in such a blissful state only moments ago, it was taking his body time to wake up and get with the program. He quickly dashed around the room at as fast a superspeed as he could muster to put his clothing back on. He glanced around for just a second, noting that the cameras were still burned to a crisp from where Kara had very literally fried them with her heat vision, the time on a small alarm clock Kara had gotten him after his first day at CatCo said it had been quite a few hours since he and Kara had arrived in his room, and, most importantly, Kara was nowhere to be found.

Some men might find it alarming or discouraging that the woman he’d just made love to, twice, had disappeared on him before he woke up. But with her duty as Supergirl he understood. There had probably been an emergency that she’d been called away to and she hadn’t wanted to wake him.

Which reminded him, alarms and flashing lights equaled danger to the DEO.

He hurried out of his room, careful NOT to superspeed with so many humans around and rushing in a certain direction. He quickly followed them to where they were being called, all of them holding weapons, which told him something was attacking the DEO.

…he just was NOT expecting that “something” to be Kara.

He stopped short as he reached the main room of the DEO to see Kara there, dressed in her black clothing once more, and holding another employee up into the air, pressed against the wall, by his neck. The man’s face was turning red, Kara’s grip was too tight, and she seemed to be ignoring the guns pointed at her and Alex trying to talk her down while simultaneously begging J’onn to hold off his command to attack for a minute longer.

“Kara!” Mon-El shoved his way (at human strength) through the others to get to Alex’s side. “What happened?”

“HE did it!” Kara snapped, her voice hard, her expression deadly as she glared at the man struggling to breathe.

“Did what?” Mon-El gave Alex a look and stepped closer, Alex backing away but pulling out a sedative device from one of the others incase this escalated.

Kara looked over at him and Mon-El was momentarily stunned by the flash of red he saw in her eyes.

“He was the one that swapped your suit!”

Mon-El glanced at the man. “Ok.” And back to Kara. “Ok, Kara, you need to let him go…”

“I need to punish him is what!” Kara’s head snapped back to the man in question, her grip tightening.

“Kara, stand down!” J’onn ordered.

“Kara,” Mon-El stepped closer to her, holding up a hand to J’onn for just one more moment. “Kara, you’re going to kill him if you don’t stop.”

“Good,” Kara spat. “He deserves it!”

“No one deserves to die,” Mon-El argued. “You taught me that when Mxzy…”

Kara let out a bitter laugh at that. “I was wrong.” There was a crack in her voice though. “He tried to kill YOU!” 

Mon-El seemed genuinely surprised that his near brush with death when his suit had been swapped was causing such a reaction in her.

“He deserves EVERYTHING he gets!” now her voice held a snarl.

Mon-El stepped closer, reaching out to place a gentle hand on her shoulder of the arm holding the man up. “I don’t want him to die.”

“He nearly took you from me!” Kara defended, “I will NOT let anyone harm MY mate!”

Mon-El was sure, had the situation not been so serious, he would have been elated to hear her refer to him as her mate. But now was not the time to get lost on that. He leaned over to the side to try and catch her eye, his hand sliding to her bicep and squeezing it lightly. “Kara, if you do this, if you kill him, then he’ll have taken YOU from ME.”

Kara’s gaze snapped over to him.

“There’s something going on here, this isn’t like you. This is like…like me.”

Kara began to smile, leaning towards him while still holding the agent up. “Maybe you’ve rubbed off on me.”

Mon-El shuddered because she should NOT be able to sound so seductive while nearly strangling a man at the same time. “I think YOU’ve rubbed off on me more,” he informed her. “This isn’t the right thing to do. There’s something wrong with you…”

“There is NOTHING wrong with ME!” she suddenly snapped, her emotions all over the place. “HE’S the criminal here!”

“Ok, ok,” Mon-El said quickly when there was a faint cracking noise from the man as he was shoved harder into the wall. His mind raced as he tried to find a strategy to work, when her response to his words just moments ago came back to him. “There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re perfect.”

Kara smiled at that, her expression softening at his words, and Mon-El knew (with a horrible feeling of guilt attached to it) that his plan would work.

“And I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Kara’s voice was gentler now.

“And I will always be there for you, to protect you, and keep you safe.”

“Me too.”

That was a dangerous route to take, he realized, because her words could so easily trigger her anger again and remind her she was currently trying to “protect” him from the man that swapped his suit.

“So I’ll make you a deal,” he paused till she tilted her head, “I’ll take him down to one of the supercells. He’ll never get out of it. And you let Alex look you over. If you’re as perfect as I know you are, I’ll let you do whatever you want to him.” Kara actually started to smile at that thought. “BUT,” he held up a warning finger teasingly at her. “If she finds there’s something affecting you, you let her treat you first. And THEN I’ll still let you do whatever you want to him.”

Kara considered his words before she slowly lowered the man back to the ground. It was a win-win. There was nothing wrong with her, there was nothing affecting her, she felt fine. And when the others realized this, she’d get to finish what she’d started here without them trying to stop her.

“One condition.”

Mon-El nodded. “Go ahead.”

“J’onn takes him down,” Kara stated. She reached up with her free hand to touch his chest. “I don’t want him anywhere near you.”

Mon-El let out a gentle breath as he felt her thumb stroke over his scar. The lead had done a number on him. Being so close to his heart and weakening him as much as it had, his skin hadn’t healed as well as it normally would have. He had a scar from that incident, a scar Kara was gently caressing now in a reminder of how close he’d come to dying.

“Deal.”

Kara shoved the man, more like threw him, into J’onn’s hold. She casually stepped forward, linking her arm through Mon-El’s and continued to literally stroll right out of the room as though there weren’t humans aiming weapons at her.

Mon-El looked over his shoulder at Alex, a desperate look in his eyes that sparked her into motion to follow and examine her sister.

*************************************************************************************************************************************

Kara slowly blinked as she came to at a lazy pace to find herself laying on one of the Yellow Sun Beds in the DEO. She felt someone squeeze her hand and turned her head to see Mon-El standing there. She immediately shut her eyes again as memories of what she’d done flooded back to her. How she’d acted with him in the DEO’s main room, their activities in his room, how she’d attacked one of the other DEO members…even if that last part as well deserved…

“He’s ok,” Mon-El reassured her. “Won’t be able to talk for a while, but he’s alive. And in the holding cell, waiting for you to decide his fate.”

“Arrest him and lock him away.”

“I knew you’d say that.” Mon-El reached forward and gently turned her head, stroking her cheek wish his thumb till she opened her eyes again, tears in them. “I knew what you were saying before wasn’t you.”

“You stopped me.”

“Well, I think Alex and J’onn stopped you first. I just had more luck talking you out of it.”

Kara lifted her free hand to touch his on her face, lightly pulling it away to hold it against her heart. “It was Red Kryptonite, wasn’t it?”

Mon-El nodded. Alex had explained it to him after she’d examined Kara and ticked her into a Yellow Sun Bed for recovery. Red Kryptonite, it didn’t weaken her like Green Kryptonite did, it just made her mean, aggressive, and careless.

“J’onn sent a team to search your apartment. There wasn’t any in it. But they did find a speck of it in…” he let out an unhappy noise. “In one of my shirt pockets he found in the bedroom. The guy you picked out, he wrote a confession that he slipped it into there the last time I was here. This time it wasn’t an intentional attack on you.”

“Why? Why did he do any of it?”

Mon-El frowned at that. “According to his confession, whoever paid him, probably CADMUS, wanted to take me out. Having Supergirl training a new Superhero would just make the city more pro-alien. They thought taking me out would kill two squirrels with one acorn…”

“Two birds with one stone.”

“Why would you stone birds?” Mon-El seemed confused, but shook his head, that wasn’t important right now. “They thought it would take down one alien, but also that it would break your spirit to have your protégée die on you.”

“Or have my boyfriend die on me.”

“I suppose that too,” Mon-El considered it. “He confessed that the Red K was because, when the first plan failed, they thought I’d be affected the same way you were and turn on the city. That it would either create anti-alien sentiment if Supergirl’s protégée turned on them, but also that if would force you to take me out too.”

“This is like killing four birds with a pebble.”

“Earthlings really don’t like birds do they? Sorry,” he shook his head, getting thrown off again. “It seems like they genuinely didn’t know YOU would be the one affected instead of me. They put it on MY shirt hoping I’d turn instead of you.” He observed her for a moment. “You didn’t know WHY he did it, but you still knew he WAS the one who did it?”

Kara sighed, turning on her side slightly to face him more. “I smelled you, when I first got here.” She flushed at that, but Mon-El said nothing, just let her speak and didn’t tease her. “I thought I smelled it in another direction than where you were, but you were right THERE so it couldn’t be you. But that thought wouldn’t leave me even after we…” she turned bright red there. “I couldn’t fall asleep because I just kept wondering WHY I smelled you somewhere else. So I got up and followed the smell to that agent. But it was so faint that it had to be days old. I almost thought that you and he…”

“Had sex?” Mon-El supplied, not sure what else she could have thought.

“You did say the more the merrier.”

Mon-El actually laughed at that. “I meant it as the more people who loved people, the more happiness there was. Whether it was man to man or woman to woman or man to woman. Love is love, the more love there is, the merrier people are. But I love YOU, Kara. YOU are my mate. I am committed to you and you alone for as long as you want me.”

“I know,” Kara rushed to reassure him, squeezing both his hands. “I ALMOST thought it. So that meant he’d had some sort of contact with you. But other people have shaken your hand too and there was just TOO much scent on him to be that. So I snooped.”

“You snooped?” He smiled at that.

“I may have gotten Winn to hack into his bank records,” Kara admitted sheepishly. “But we saw he’d gotten a large deposit from an account even Winn couldn’t trace. And it was for the day of that robbery. So I just knew he’d done it. HE had swapped your suit. HE was the reason you nearly died…”

“Hey.” Mon-El reached forward to touch her cheek again, stroking it as he saw tears gather in her eyes. “I’m fine. I’m alive. I’m here with you. I’m ok. And now you are too.”

“Thanks to you.” She smiled up at him, turning to press a kiss to his hand in thanks.

“Well, you’ve saved me a bunch. We’ll just consider this me catching up.”

“I think you’ll have to save me a few hundred more times for that to happen.”

“Hey!” Mon-El let out a mock-offended whine at that, causing Kara to burst into laughter. “There’s my mate.”

Kara flushed at that, looking up at him with a light smile. “I meant it. You know.”

“What?”

She knew he wasn’t doing that just to get her to say it, but because he genuinely didn’t know what she was talking about. “I called you my mate. I meant it.”

Mon-El let out a breath at that, completely startled and touched. His smile grew impossibly soft, “I’m glad.”

Kara smiled at that.

But it didn’t escape Mon’El’s notice that she hadn’t said her “I love you” had been meant.

“And I’m sorry.”

Kara frowned. “For what? I was the one out of control this time.”

“Alex explained to me what Red K was like for you. It’s like a drug, like you’re high. And I…we…I didn’t stop you…and we…”

Kara’s expression softened. “I gave you my consent, Mon-El.”

He shook his head though. “You can’t give informed consent when you aren’t in your right state of mind.” He sounded like he was reciting a lesson, one that was important to him. “You were essentially drugged and I didn’t stop you. I SHOULD have. I COULD have. But I didn’t and…”

“You tried,” Kara cut in, squeezing his hands more to get him to look at her. “I remember you trying to. I didn’t make it easy. I wanted it, I wanted YOU, too much to let you stop me. I’M the one who should be apologizing. I took advantage of you and…”

“No, no,” he argued. “It’s on ME. I knew something was wrong, I could tell, but we still ended up…”

“Mon-El,” Kara spoke, her tone implying he NEEDED to listen to her now, to hear her. “The Red K, yes, it’s sort of like a drug, but not the way you’re thinking. All it does is lower my inhibitions. I’m still fully conscious, I can still think about the consequences of things, I just don’t care about them. It’s like every thought and desire I have that I don’t LET myself have, comes out.”

Mon-El absorbed her words for a moment, a crinkle of confusion in his forehead. “So…you mean…by desires, you mean…”

“I’ve…I actually…” she let out a huff of frustration before closing her eyes and just saying it. “I’ve fantasized about us doing it in the DEO.”

Mon-El blinked at that, before his eyes widened and his eyebrows rose into his hairline at her confession. “And was it…was it good?” he offered. “Did I make the fantasy a good one?”

Kara’s eyes snapped open to stare at him. She honestly didn’t know what reaction she was expecting, for him to laugh or tease her or be a little disgusted by it, but THAT? That she told him a fantasy and, instead, he just wanted to know if he’d made it come alive? That he was more concerned that he had done right by her in the fantasy and made it a good experience for her…he was something else.

“Yes,” she murmured quietly. “It was almost exactly like my fantasy.”

Mon-El began to smile at that, feeling reassured that he hadn’t taken advantage of Kara the way he’d feared. To know that she’d actually been thinking about doing something like that but kept herself from allowing it, that the Red K just let her do it, it was a little more reassuring and…

“Almost?”

Kara let out a mock-groan, “Don’t make me say it.”

Mon-El chuckled at that. “Kara, I won’t laugh,” he leaned over her slightly to look into her eyes. “I want to give you everything I possibly can. Fulfilling fantasies, any one that you have, I’ll try my best to do. But I can’t do it if you don’t tell me.”

“You would NEVER be able to fulfill this one.”

“Try me.”

“I don’t have it often,” she defended. What she was defending she wasn’t sure. “It just…slips in sometimes. Usually when I’m annoyed at the DEO or the orders I’m given. Or something goes wrong and I can fix it but they won’t LET me. Or…”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to Kara,” Mon-El reassured her, taking her rambling as excuses not to say it. “I was just curious. I can tell you some of mine if it makes you feel better?”

Kara gave him a look at that before rolling her eyes and just going for it, she couldn’t possibly embarrass herself anymore than she already had with how she’d acted before. 

“I fantasize about us having sex on J’onn’s desk.”

“I did NOT need to hear that, Kara Danvers!”

Ok, so she was wrong, she very much COULD embarrass herself more than she already had when her sister AND mother walked in to check on her at the worst possible moment.

(Though, she would admit, the pictures Alex had somehow managed to get a hold of featuring her and Mon-El in various states of cuteness and (as Mon-El would grin and say) sexiness all over the DEO on their quest to get to his room, weren’t quite as embarrassing as she thought they’d be.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter sort of got away from me. I wanted to explore what Kara might be like with Red K after she's entered a relationship with Mon-El. If it lets her do and say what she wants and act the way she doesn't let herself, she might be a little more fixated on Mon-El with him being an alien that can handle her and her strength. Also, I don't imagine Kara was exposed to the Red K in her "pajama" shirt long enough to really go as dark as she did in the episode. This is like just a few hours exposed to it but I think, if she's opening herself up to Mon-El more and more, she might not even realize it's the Red K making her THIS open about it in the chapter ;-)
> 
> I also thought that Alex wouldn't really think it's Red K at first. She has a gut reaction that it's Red K, but seeing how Kara acted around Mon-El, not irritated or spewing dark words at a person that has a tendency to annoy her despite how much she loves him, she wouldn't immediately think it IS Red K after that moment. Not till Kara actually acts out the way she did on Red K.
> 
> And apologies for no smut or lemons or anything. I am really, really terrible at writing them so I tried to at least make it clear what happened without actually writing that scene.


	16. During Their Morning Routine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry there was no chapter yesterday. Easter and family leave little time to get anything done :-(

Kara couldn’t help but smile as she sat at her kitchen table, eating the food Mon-El had prepared for her. She was just watching him cleaning the dishes by hand, an adorable crinkle in between his own brow as he worked. His crinkle was different from hers though. While hers tended to appear when she was lying or about to yell at him, his came when he was deeply concentrating.

She could guess he was concentrating on not breaking the glasses. 

He had gotten better at not breaking things, at controlling his strength, especially now that she knew he was actually stronger than her. She had been teaching him how to act with human strength based on her own strength as a gauge, but he was doing much better now. 

And watching him so fixated on cleaning her dishes and not damaging them created such a warm feeling in her stomach. 

It was so domestic, something she never thought she’d have with a human. It made sense she could only really have it with an alien like herself. He was one of the handful of people she didn’t have to worry about hurting by just being herself. Not in being Supergirl or Kara Danvers, but just being Kara Zor-El.

He should have been out of place in her apartment. It had been just her for so long living there that another person living with her that wasn’t Alex or Eliza should have been jarring.

But it wasn’t.

He fit in so well she still woke up some days wondering if she’d dreamed him.

And given how different they were just in personality and history, he really shouldn’t have fit in as well as he was. 

Mon-El hadn’t been completely wrong when he’d said she was from the planet of the snobs. She knew she could be uptight and a little too controlling. Her experience with him when she tried to fit him into the mold for CatCo, how she’d dressed him like she would have and set him to work in her place, how she treated him like he should fit in so easily. She knew she was a little too strict and focused, too organized and rigid.

Mon-El was the complete opposite. He was laid back and casual, he was all for fun and partying. He was all organized chaos and go with the flow. He was a bit of a slob and more than a little messy and often put things in the wrong place.

She had realized the first time he’d stayed over more than a night just how different they were in terms of just living, but even more so in terms of routines. She’d observed his quirks and habits and his morning routine and she’d actually felt irritation at how he went about his day. She’d gotten to a point where she’d gone to sleep once and dreaded the next morning, the first he would genuinely be staying and readying his day with her, because she’d been so certain that his routine would interfere with and hinder her own and would just start her day off on the worst foot.

So it surprised her how easily they actually fit together, how well they meshed.

And it honestly surprised her just how quickly she’d gotten used to his routine.

She couldn’t imagine going about her routine without him there anymore.

Every morning, she would wake slowly in a nest of warmth. She adored that. Usually, at night, she’d set her thermostat to be just a little cooler as she always felt overheated after a long day, but, by the time she woke up, she’d be just too chilled to sleep as long as she’d want to. Now, with Mon-El there, wrapped in his arms, she was just warm enough to sleep right till her alarm went off or she was called into the DEO, or she just decided to wake up. 

(She’d never tell him, but it wasn’t the smell of bacon that woke her up when he’d made her breakfast once, but the fact that she’d woken up chilled without his arms around her.)

Her mornings were already much better with Mon-El there to keep her warm. 

Ironically, she’d expected him to be lazy, to sleep in, especially with his late shifts at the bar. But once he’d gotten used to Earth, to the yellow sun, to the electricity in the air that he subconsciously absorbed, he usually woke up before her. 

…well, unless she tired him out the night before.

Still, he would usually wake up before her and jump in the shower to fully wake up. He’d press a kiss to her before he did so, which always made her smile.

She used to think she’d hate him taking a shower before her. She’d thought he’d take up all the hot water, because he was a Daxamite and selfish and lazy and all the other horribly prejudiced things she used to think. She knew better now. He DID take hot showers, ridiculously hot showers. But they were shorter than she’d thought he’d take.

And it was wonderful for her. Because the bathroom would be warm when he finished and she needed to shower. The water would be deliciously heated for her, no first flash of cold water, no waiting for it to heat up. It was just perfect now. And it smelled like him. They had their own little shampoos and soaps to use, but the room would carry his scent, effectively soothing her even more.

(And if she happened to use his shampoo or soap to feel him closer to her on the days when they both had hectic schedules and wouldn’t see each other for more than a minute, well…he probably could smell it on her during that brief moment, but he always just gave her an understanding smile.)

She’d step out to find towels already set up for her so she wouldn’t have to scramble for one. She used to just step out and find a towel to use. But Mon-El always left one for her. After she’d explained why towels were necessary and proper to use after showering, to cover up, the one time he’d stepped out and given her an eyeful. He used them now to wrap around his waist if he didn’t bring clothes in with him, but he always left one for her too. 

(She’d never tell him she was considering being daring and stepping out without a towel too. Just to see his reaction. For science. Alex would be proud.)

She’d get dressed and step out of the bathroom to the smell of a wonderful breakfast that Mon-El would prepare while she showered. 

Normally she’d be in a rush to get to work or just feel too lazy to make herself something truly filling for an alien metabolism. Just like during Thanksgiving, she liked to eat and eat NOW, not wait hours for things to be made. But with Mon-El there, he made breakfast for the two of them. And it was always so delicious.

She’d thought she’d be angry with him for puttering around her home and messing up her food, creating a mess on her counters, leaving pots and pans in the sink. Even though she was just as guilty of leaving things there, it was HER doing it, not someone else leaving a mess.

Mon-El was surprisingly clean and neat. She’d asked him once, and he’d merely said if one makes a mess, it is their duty to clean it.

(Yes, she had flushed crimson when he’d elaborated that, by “mess” he meant things involving bedrooms and partners and seed and how it was only right to thank someone that had helped you seek pleasure by caring for them. Still, it was a sentiment that carried into the kitchen and his things scattered around her apartment. If he made a mess, he cleaned it.)

It was a sign of affection to clean up, it was a sign of respect. Kara was letting him live with her, the least he could do was keep his things tidy for her. To show he cared about her and respected her space, that he appreciated her.

Mon-El did that a lot when he cooked. He always made too much food. He cooked when he was hungry, but he was always considerate that, if HE was hungry then, no doubt, SHE would be too. And he always liked to experiment and try new foods. He was working his way through her cookbooks, so eager to learn about Earth foods. She got to eat new foods every day, and he got to discover things for himself. 

(She almost wanted to suggest he take some culinary classes, or consider being a chef…but that would mean he’d be cooking his wonderful food for everyone and not just her. And maybe she was entitled to be just a little selfish here.)

So they’d sit there, just like now, and eat together. He’d tell her about his night at the bar, she’d tell him about her plans for the day. They’d agree on a time to train and then go to eat to recharge from it. But after they ate breakfast, she knew, she’d go to try and do the dishes and Mon-El would insist on doing them himself. He’d kiss her and then make a joke about her “morning breath” and “food breath” or something that would just have her punch him in the arm before heading off to brush her teeth.

His toothbrush was next to hers in the cup she kept hers in. The tube of toothpaste was always squeezed in the center from when he’d brushed his teeth last before going to bed. She’d always smooth it out and squeeze from the end to get every last bit of paste out. It was one of the more annoying things about him, but something she wouldn’t change for anything. 

It made him…human.

It made them normal. That they had these little quirks that were different. It always reminded her to appreciate him and HOW they were different. It was something so small and stupid, a toothpaste tube, but it always made her smile. It reminded her of what Alex had told her, that she and Mon-El were different people, with different pasts and personalities and histories and cultures and customs, and she could NOT expect Mon-El to be just like her or fit into a mold just because SHE wanted him in it, because she thought THAT was what she wanted. 

That little tube just reminded her he was different, he was his own person, but he was still HERS. Because that tube was in HER apartment, in HER bathroom, and something that was HERS, and something she shared with Mon-El.

And so she’d brush her teeth and spin around to see Mon-El had finished the dishes and come to brush his own teeth. She’d press a kiss to his lips and tease HIM about his morning breath, and then he’d kiss her after he finished. 

They would have a slow morning, gather their things, take each other’s hand, and head out for the day together.

Overall, it was one of the best mornings she had and it happened every day since Mon-El had taken to living with her. She wouldn’t trade it for anything.

“What?”

“Hmm?” Kara looked up to see Mon-El smiling at her as he leaned against the sink, a plate in his hand as he dried it with a cloth.

“You were staring,” he remarked, tilting his head to the side as though trying to read her mind and see what she was thinking about.

“Can you blame me?” she flirted, exaggeratedly eyeing him up and down.

Mon-El let out a barking laugh, one full of joy and surprise, as he smiled at her. “You’re in a good mood today.”

“Excuse you, I’m always in a good mood. I am a literal ray of sunshine.”

Mon-El’s expression grew fond. “You really are.”

Kara slowly got up and made her way over to him, draping her arms around his neck as he set the plate aside to wind his arms around her waist. “I’m in a good mood,” she agreed. “I always am now.”

“And why’s that?” He leaned in to rest his forehead to hers. “Is my bacon just THAT good?”

She shook her head against his. “No. YOU are that good.” She pulled away slightly to look at him. “YOU put me in a good mood. You make me happy.”

“Yeah?” He smiled softly at that.

“Yeah.” She nodded and leaned in to press a gentle kiss to his lips. “And I love waking up next to you.”

“Good.” He kissed her a little more firmly. “Because I plan to wake up next to you everyday you’ll have me.”

Kara couldn’t respond to that in words, couldn’t express how long that would be for, because it would take too much to do it. It would go on for forever, that’s how long she planned to have him in her life, beside her. She wouldn’t trade these mornings with Mon-El for anything, the little routine they’d fallen into in such a short time was such a permanent part of her day, of starting her day on a good note.

So, instead, she leaned in and kissed him again, pressing herself to him and winding her arms more securely around him, not about to ever let him go.

…and if their morning routine took a bit of a detour that morning, well…maybe they could add it to their normal routine. It certainly made the morning all the better.


	17. Spooning

Kara had never slept in bed with another man before, not ever, not even in the cliched “little girl having a nightmare and sleeping with her parents” way. Sometimes she and Alex would fall asleep in the same bed, she would usually go to her sister for nightmares or bad nights. Alex would hug her till she fell asleep but always made sure they woke up separated, even going so far as to sleep on the floor so Kara could have the bed. That was as close as she had ever gotten to the ideal of “spooning.” That was as close as she ever thought she’d get and it made sense. She and the Danvers had learned early on that her defenses were down at night and, depending on the dream or how restless her sleep was, it could be devastating if she had a human in her arms. She’d woken up with enough pillows ripped and stuffed animals torn apart to realize her strength came out at night.

If she ever had a human stay the night, she could never sleep soundly for fear of hurting them in her sleep. So she’d, very early on, banished the thoughts and hopes that, one day, she’d have a man in her bed that she could genuinely snuggle up to and not fear for his life if she had a nightmare or tossed the wrong way and struck him. Sure, she could manage during the day, while she was consciously controlling her strength, but she knew it wouldn’t last.

Sleeping and…other activities that happened in a bed…were two situations she had never thought she’d attain. She couldn’t control herself when she was unconscious, nor when she was in the middle of pleasure (taking care of herself like that had given her a glimpse of how little control she had on her strength). She could have all the romance in the world, but no physical pleasure unless she wanted to cripple her partner or fake her way through each and every time.

So it was truly a blessing to her, and something she would be forever grateful for, that Mon-El came along. Here was a man, stronger than her even, unbreakable to her strength. And he loved to snuggle and cuddle and spoon. 

This was the first, and likely only, man she could sleep beside and not fear waking up to a bloodied and bruised mess if she tossed and turned at night. This was a man she could squeeze with all her might after a nightmare and not fear crushing his ribs, who could hug her back just as tight and she could FEEL the comfort. This was a man she could seek pleasure with and not fear harming him, but just feel good and complete with.

And it wasn’t even just about that, it wasn’t that he was the ONLY man who could give her that. She was sure, if she really looked hard enough, she could find some alien that had some sort of resilience being on Earth, one that could handle her. But she didn’t want THAT. She wanted Mon-El. It just so happened that the one of the only men she could be with was the only one she WANTED to be with. Being in his arms was next to heavenly to her.

Mon-El loved to be the big spoon when they fell asleep. He loved putting his arms around her and protecting her at night. She was Supergirl during the day, invulnerable to just about anything, she didn’t need protecting and, despite Mon-El’s vast improvement in hero training, he still had a way to go before he could fight beside her without her worrying for him. He knew it too, that, at the moment, there was little he could really do to help her or assist or protect her. It came about, she felt, at night when he’d cuddle her into his arms and turn her so her back was flush to his chest, winding his arms around her in a protective embrace. It was his way of being able to do something, to protect her dreams, to make her feel safe and loved while she slept.

And she loved it, absolutely LOVED being the little spoon. She was always the one doing the protecting and being the strength of the people. It was so refreshing and nice to be the one protected, to be the one taken care of and allowing herself to let go of that mask and just be Kara Zor-El in his arms. She loved the feel of his arms around her, his warmth seeping into her, his heart beating against her, his breath on her neck, even the little snoring sound he made just as he fell into a truly deep sleep.

She loved to be the little spoon.

But that didn’t mean she was never the big spoon either.

And she hated those nights, loathed them, despite the fact that SHE was always the one that insisted on the change in dynamic.

Because on those nights, the nights where SHE would wind her arms around Mon-El, those were the nights she never slept. Those were the nights where she’d lay awake the entire time and just look at him, in her arms, alive and whole and safe.

Those were the nights she nearly lost him.

They were few, thankfully growing fewer and fewer the better he got at being a hero. But there had been some close calls. There had been bullets and alien guns and superstrengthed aliens and other things that had put him at risk. So much so that she had a true scare that she’d lose him those times.

Those nights she NEEDED him to be in her arms instead. She needed to feel him in front of her, see him breathing, feel his chest moving. She needed to know he was safe in HER arms this time, that SHE was protecting him now when she’d so badly failed to out in the field. Those were the nights she needed to be the one holding him instead, to know he was still there.

She hated those nights for the reminder of how close she’d come to never having another Little Spoon night again.

And so she loved the nights she was the Little Spoon, because every single night like that meant he was safe. It meant he hadn’t gotten hurt. It meant she’d kept him safe and he’d kept her (and himself) safe too. It meant he was healthy and fine and not injured or bleeding. It meant he was breathing easily, he was strong and alive and THERE for another night.

So on nights like this, with her as the little spoon, she fell asleep easily and quickly, more so than she had ever done in her life because she was surrounded by his warmth and life and love.

…there was only one small reason she sometimes hated being the little spoon, though it was so infinitesimal it hardly warranted consideration.

She fell asleep so easily and did so ANYWHERE so long as she was in Mon-El’s arms. 

Up to and including on Alex’s couch during movie night with everyone else. 

Completely oblivious that she’d drifted off in the first place she was that content and happy. 

(Alex had the pictures to prove it.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow you guys! Over 100 comments! :-D I actually made a promise to myself that, if I ever hit 100 comments, I'd post a link to this story on my tumblr so I'm going to do that very soon. 
> 
> But if any of you have one, come say hi! I'm at https://karamel-haven.tumblr.com/


	18. Doing Something Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stretching the prompt a little bit, making it somewhat of a group doing something together thing. And it sort of veers into semi-serious talk and a firm MonWinn Brotp moment. But I hope you enjoy!

“Careful! Careful!” Kara winced as she helped guide Mon-El through the door of her apartment, hearing the man let out a soft groan in her ear as he moved.

He’d just been released from the DEO after he’d been shot in the chest and he was still quite sore. It pained him to move but he’d insisted on leaving the DEO when he’d found Kara sleeping hunched over the edge of his bed for the third night. He’d tried to get her to go back to her apartment to sleep, but she’d refused, so he then spoke with J’onn about being released “into her care” for the remainder of his recovery. J’onn had almost declined, not wanting added weight on Kara’s shoulders to care for an injured boyfriend, but Mon-El had explained it wasn’t really like that, it was just so she’d be in her home and able to sleep, eat, and shower easier.

Kara had her arm looped around his waist, holding his one arm over her shoulder while Alex attempted to help him move on his other side. Winn was, very helpfully, holding the doors open for them as he joined them in making sure Mon-El made the journey there in one piece. He even had a massive bag packed full of medical items to help examine Mon-El once they got there and items to rebandage him with if he opened his wound.

Mon-El let out a relieved breath as he sunk back onto Kara’s couch, leaning back against it and resting a moment.

“Do you need anything?” Kara fretted, reaching out to touch his face and knee and lightly touch his chest to check him over. “Water? Food? A blanket? Medicine! Pain relievers? I think we have some stocked away and…”

Mon-El cut her off by gently catching her hand as she went to pull away, Winn already setting the bag down and searching through it for the pain relievers the DEO had developed for him. “I’m fine,” he insisted.

Kara gave him an unimpressed look.

Mon-El had to chuckle lightly at that. “I’ll BE fine,” he repeated his words to her again. He tugged on her hand and got her to plop down beside him, on his uninjured side, winding an arm around her. He needed the comfort of her being beside him just as much as she needed to feel him warm against her too.

“Well, um, now that you guys are set up, we’ll just be…”

“Stay,” Mon-El cut in what Alex was saying. He could see the tension in her shoulders and he knew, just as much as Kara felt guilty, Alex and Winn did too. They both had a hand in designing his real suit, and neither had noticed the suit he was wearing had been swapped. They’d both apologized a thousand times to him and he’d forgiven them before they could even get the first one out. It wasn’t their fault, he’d insisted that numerous times. There really was nothing to forgive because it wasn’t their fault, but they kept apologizing anyway.

A small part of him, well quite a large part but it was based in insecurities, wondered if they felt more guilty that he’d been hurt or that Kara was so affected. They hadn’t known him THAT long to feel that badly he was hurt, right? But they both adored Kara and seeing her so devastated would have been enough to make anyone feel guilty, even her worst enemies.

But he pushed that thought aside. Winn and Alex had become friends of his, dear friends, and he knew he’d feel just as badly if they had gotten hurt on his watch, so it had to be that they were sorry HE’D been hurt.

“Yeah,” Kara agreed, pulling Mon-El out of his thoughts. “You guys have been so much help. Stick around a little.”

“We haven’t ‘hung out’ in a long time.” Mon-El nodded.

Winn gave an almost forced chuckle at how Mon-El used quotey fingers with that.

“Let’s do something together,” Kara said readily.

Alex let out a snort. “There’s not much we can really do when one of us is incapacitated.”

“I’m not inca…incapzinated,” Mon-El tried to insist, which earned him a laugh from Kara.

“Incapacitated,” she corrected lightly, before looking at Alex. “We don’t have to do anything big. We can just sit around, watch a movie or something.”

“I vote the Force Awakens!” Winn literally jumped up from where he was crouched beside the bag and taking out all the supplies from it with his hand shooting into the air.

Mon-El laughed a little harder at that, wincing a moment later and resting a hand to his chest where the wound tugged at him. “Sounds great!” He smiled, agreeing with Winn’s vote since the man had been going on and on about it but Mon-El hadn’t had a chance to watch the “epic” yet.

His smile faded though when he saw the three of them looking at him with mixed expressions of sorrow, solemness, and guilt.

“What?”

“Nothing,” Alex said quickly, turning to dig through Kara’s DVDs. “You got that one?”

“Um, yeah,” Kara called though her eyes were on Mon-El intently.

Mon-El let out a sigh, working out what had gotten them all silent and the mood so low once more. His mind raced for a way to make it lighter again. That was something on Daxam, happiness was important and he genuinely liked seeing people happy. Even his parents, it was probably one reason he drank and partied so much. He had to do, say, and agree with so many things that he personally loathed just to see them happy, to see other people happy. He was quite sure that every person on any planet in the universe had those moments where their parents were disappointed in them and it just gutted you.   
Despite how poor his childhood had been, how abusive and manipulative his parents were (he now realized), he had still wanted them to be proud of him and happy with him. 

And maybe he drank to excess to not feel any of that anymore. If he was drunk, he couldn’t feel the blows, emotional or physical. If he was drunk, he was less coherent, he couldn’t be aware of the things around him he wouldn’t be able to do anything about or change or stop till he was King. If he was drunk, he was more fun to be around and he cared less about how other people used him just to get into his bed and say they were with the prince. 

He cared less when he was drunk or partying and that was the only way he could survive on Daxam with his parents still in power and controlling his life. 

He shook his head, feeling himself getting too depressed in his own thoughts. No, now was the time to focus on making the others happier.

“You know, I think it might have been lucky this happened.”

Ok, so perhaps that wasn’t the BEST thing he could have said.

Kara’s horrified look was what made him quickly explain.

“I mean, not…not getting shot or…or the lead or anything.” He reached out to take her hand quickly, his eyes so wide as he hastened to fix what he’d said. “I just meant, not having that much to do with the robbery or…or getting caught by the press afterwards.”

“Why?” Alex glanced at him from where she was setting up the movie. “I’d have thought you of all people would love the limelight.”

Mon-El bit his tongue at that. “I realized something the last few days. I had the training, and the suit, and people knew me as Supergirl’s protégée and things, but there was something pretty big missing from all that.”

“What?” Kara’s brow crinkled adorably as she tried to work out what they could have forgotten.

Mon-El smiled. “I didn’t have a superhero name.”

“Ooh!” Kara brightened instantly. “I have the perfect…”

Whatever she was going to say was cut off when Mon-El gently pressed a finger to her lips, a soft, adoring smile on his face. “I know you’d pick an awesome name,” he told her, pulling the finger away a moment later. “But…I um…I actually want Winn to pick it.”

“Me?!” Winn pointed to himself at that, his eyes wide in shock and disbelief. “You want ME to pick your superhero name and not Supergirl herself?”

Mon-El nodded, ignoring for the moment both Kara and Alex’s confused expressions. “I have two very good reasons for it too.”

“And what would that be?” Alex straightened up and crossed her arms, fixing Mon-El with a hard look. He had BETTER have a good reason for not letting her sister, HIS girlfriend, and THE Supergirl pick his name.

“Well, the first is I promised Winn that he could name me when I asked him to make me a supersuit.”

“You uh, didn’t technically promise me I could,” Winn interrupted, casting a wary glance at Kara who seemed to be deeply concentrating on what Mon-El was saying. Oh he was really hoping that this wouldn’t put him on Supergirl’s bad side…especially because, in all irony, he was wearing a red shirt today.

“The intent still stands,” Mon-El argued lightly, looking back at Winn. “But the second reason is the most important one.”

“And what’s that?” Kara’s voice was gentle now as she squeezed his hand reassuringly, telling him she wasn’t mad at him for this.

Mon-El smiled at her a moment for her understanding and looked over at Winn, knowing he couldn’t say what he was going to while looking at Kara’s comet-blue eyes. “You were…my first friend on Earth.” He let out an almost-sad laugh. “My first friend ever, really.”

And it was true, as it likely was for all royalty anywhere, he never knew if people were his friends because he was the prince or because he was Mon-El. He never knew if people were his friends because they were being paid to spend all day with him, like a guard here or there, or they actually cared if he lived or died.

“You were the first person on this planet to know I was Daxamite, and not…not judge me for it,” Mon-El continued. “You treated me like any other alien and didn’t let prejudice or someone else’s bias influence how you acted around me.”

He could see out of the corner of his eye both Kara and even Alex look down at that. Kara for her prejudiced reaction to him and Alex for how she’d treated him just based on what Kara thought of him. He was sure, if J’onn and James were there, they too would have had a similar reaction as Alex. All of them, once they learned what a Daxamite was like from Kara’s perspective, had treated him on her example. And her example HAD taken time to change to a more positive light.

But not Winn.

“You took me to a bar, just because I wanted to get out of the DEO for a little. You trusted me, despite what you’d heard, and that meant so much to me Winn, you have no idea. That someone COULD trust me, that someone actually wanted to ‘hang out’ with me. And that someone could look at me and just see Mon-El, not ‘a Daxamite.’”

“Mon-El…” Kara breathed.

Mon-El still couldn’t look at her, but he squeezed her hand tightly to let her know he wasn’t mad about it, he understood, he really did.

“You were a really great friend to me, Winn. You’ve always been. You were the one that really tried to help me adapt to Earth, even if the shows and movies weren’t quite accurate. It turns out Doctors do not just have sex at work, that’s a no-no.”

The others laughed at that.

“But you were the one I could turn to to ask about Earth customs and language and oddities without being afraid I was annoying you or making me feel stupid.”

“Mon-El…” this time it was Alex who had spoken, actually wincing at the words. She was guilty of being a little too short with him about some things when he was confused about Earth, but she knew Kara was too.

“You gave me advice when I needed it, and you never just expected me to be a hero. You let me do my own thing, go to places with me, you never really expected anything from me. And it…it really meant a lot to me to have a friend like that.”

“Buddy,” Winn had actual tears in his eyes. “You’re one of my best friends too. And I’d be honored to name you.”

Mon-El beamed at that. “So what’ll it be?”

“Oh, Mon-El we should probably give him some time,” Kara cut in gently, getting Mon-El to turn to her once more, seeing tears in her own eyes but a smile on her face. “You can’t rush things like this or you’ll end up being called Superboy or something.”

She had grown into being SuperGIRL, but it still irritated her she hadn’t named herself.

“I um, I actually HAVE thought of one though,” Winn called, earning their attention. “I mean, you DID say I could name you that day and, well, even though I didn’t think you were serious, it didn’t stop me from thinking about it.”

Mon-El grinned. “And?”

“It took a really long time because you were still training and becoming your own superhero and I wasn’t sure what type you’d be, how you’d handle it, if you’d stick with it, but you did and I could see you getting better and better and more into it and…”

“Just spit it out Winn!” Alex shouted as Winn began to ramble.

“Valor!” Winn jumped at her sudden shout. “Jeez, way to kill the build up.”

“Valor?” Mon-El tested it out.

“It means courage, bravery, fearlessness…” Winn began to explain.

“And you think that’s ME?” this time Mon-El pointed at himself.

Winn gave him a smile. “I think that’s the sort of person you WANT to be.”

That stunned them all into silence, because it was so accurate. Mon-El had displayed cowardice and selfishness, but had slowly grown out of it. He still needed work on it to reach a superhero level of bravery and courage, but he was trying, he was trying so hard and they could all see it.

Winn, especially, knew how much Mon-El loathed who he had been. They’d gone out for drinks after the Daxamite “invasion” issue. Mon-El had unloaded on Winn, as an impartial listener, about how he hated who he was and how he really wanted to be better.

It had struck Winn as odd, to hear Mon-El talking about himself so badly. Because he really didn’t think Mon-El was as bad as he made himself out to be. The very first time they spent together, at the bar, he’d fully expected Mon-El to ditch him the second he was drunk enough to not stop the alien. But Mon-El had stayed with him, had kept his promise, had really seemed to just want to be around other aliens and out of the DEO. It was then that he knew Mon-El wasn’t as bad as Kara made Daxamites seem to be. And he kept seeing it, in little things the man did, in little moments he had when he didn’t think anyone else noticed. 

Mon-El WAS a hero, he WAS a good man, he just was so beaten down by his past and challenges in his present that he couldn’t see it. He still thought of himself as that frat boy as though it were something he’d never escape from or make up for. But he knew, just like Kara did, that Mon-El wasn’t that person anymore.

Honestly, Winn sometimes wondered if he had ever really been that person at all, in heart. He honestly felt like it wasn’t so much Mon-El changing from being a terrible person to a hero, but more Mon-El finally allowing himself to be who he’d always been or wanted to be but held back from being.

“And I wanted to give you a name to remind you that you CAN be that now,” Winn finished. “It’s a reminder and a goal.”

Mon-El shook his head at the thoughtfulness Winn had put into it. It wasn’t just a title meant to depict who he was as a type of hero, but something to remind him of what he wanted to be. “I think it’s great.”

“It’s perfect,” Kara agreed, leaning against Mon-El slightly, a sly smile on her face. “You know, Valor also means gallantry.”

Mon-El looked at her, his smile growing. “No more goofus?”

“Well, a tiny bit goofus never hurt anyone.”

Alex and Winn were, understandably confused as to why that seemed to be something to kiss over when the two aliens did just that.

Either way, it ended up being a good night for them. They were able to hang out and just watch a movie together, Mon-El’s wound was healing, Kara was finally relaxed, Winn named his first superhero, and Alex had many more pictures to add to her growing collection.

(Her favorites were a serious of Kara actually being clumsy in trying to redo the bandage on Mon-El’s chest. Her sister seemed quite flustered and distracted for some reason…)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we see the rise of Valor! :-)
> 
> Also just added in a few of my thoughts for why Mon-El was the "frat boy" before he got to Earth. Knowing his parents aren't treating him right, but also wanting to make them proud/happy, but then hating himself for it and using whatever he can to cope :-(


	19. In Formal Wear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry there was a delay in updating. Work got the best of me :-( But on a happier note, the hiatus is over! And, on another happy note, enjoy a chapter featuring Clark Kent too! :-D

Mon-El had never been so nervous in his entire life. Honest to gods, never. He hadn’t even known what nervousness was till this exact moment. Sure, he’d felt some nerves, being around Kara after he’d realized his feelings for her had been an experience. It had been his first introduction to just how many emotions could be felt by a person. But nervousness like this? Completely new and yet not unexpected.

At least according to Winn and James.

Both men had assured him it would be perfectly natural for him to feel like he was going to puke and experience an intense desire to flee at the same time.

Apparently it was a normal reaction toward meeting the eldest male relative of your girlfriend. 

And he was about to do just that. He was about to meet Clark Kent, THE Superman, Kara’s cousin…and be introduced as her boyfriend.

Sweating was normal too right? Right?! Because he felt like he was about to pass out as he stood next to a beaming, beautiful Kara. Well, Kara always looked beautiful, especially when she was smiling, but she’d gone the extra mile for this occasion, had insisted he do the same.

Which was why they were both dressed so formally, her in a beautiful gown, him in a smart suit that he’d worn to Lena’s gala.

Oh, it wasn’t because he was meeting Clark that they were dressed so formal, no…it was Clark and Lois’s latching ceremony. Er, wedding, yeah that was the earth term, wedding.

They hadn’t been allowed to superspeed there, Alex had nearly attempted to smack him when he suggested it. Something about Kara’s hair taking forever to style and if he screwed it up with the wind whipping through it, someone was going to die. He was pretty sure Alex meant him.

Either way, they had taken transportation there and arrived exactly on time. Kara had insisted on seeing her cousin before the ceremony, but had requested he stay behind at their seats. Clark would likely be nervous enough, Kara was nervous for him, and introducing Mon-El right before he said his vows seemed like the wrong time to do it. So he’d waited till she rejoined him, they’d watched the ceremony, Kara with tears in her eyes and Mon-El trying to absorb everything about earth weddings that he could (for science). Clark and Lois had headed to the reception in a separate vehicle and were now sharing their first dance as husband and wife.

(Mon-El had inquired why it was always phrased like that in all the references he heard. Husband and Wife and not Wife and Husband. Kara had been confused why THAT was what he was picking up from all of it. She’d seemed very flustered when he’d casually mentioned that, on Daxam, women came first in all matters. Perhaps he shouldn’t have mentioned especially in the bedroom? She’d certainly gone bright red and stuttered out some sort of explanation about why husbands were titled before wives.)

(But it was true. On Daxam, if a woman did not come first, in all matters, her husband or mate was seen as a failure and it would be grounds for the wife to request a breaking of ties with her husband. It would allow her to seek another mate to latch. It was similar, he thought, to how Earth seemed to look upon men as the providers in certain ways, they had certain expectations. On Daxam, a male protected, cared for, practically worshiped his female.)

(He had very distant, and yet others clear, memories of his father being the same with his mother. Doing as she requested, catering to her will and whim, supporting her choices…even if that meant neglecting his son in favor of pleasing his wife.)

Kara had promised that, once the first dance (which was very, very important for a newly latched couple) was over, she’d introduce them then.

And now he was sweating bullets.

(Not literally. If he were doing that, he would fear for his health as the bullets might be lead-based and then he’d have far worse things to worry about if he was sweating lead…)

He couldn’t stop his hands from fidgeting as he watched the couple dancing. He honestly hadn’t even noticed they were shaking so much till Kara took one in her own.

He looked over at her to see her giving him a smile. It was small, but fond, and filled with such warmth, understanding, and reassurance that he couldn’t help but smile back. It was like she was reading his mind and knew exactly why he was nervous about all of this.

(Well, not quite read his mind. He’d been quite vocal about all the ways he feared this would go wrong. He was sure that Kara, had it not been for the fact she found it endearing he was THIS worried about getting her cousin’s approval, would have probably smacked him to shut him up over the ridiculousness of it all.)

He blinked, startled, when Kara gave his hand a gentle tug towards the dance floor. His gaze shot over to it, relieved to see that other couples had come out to join the wedded couple and that he and Kara wouldn’t be intruding. So he allowed her to tug him on, doing his best to copy the way others were dancing.

It wasn’t like on Daxam, or even some Kryptonian dances he knew or like the waltzing at the gala but more two people swaying side to side, the man with his hands on the girl’s waist with her arms around his shoulders. He wasn’t sure why he expected any sort of Kryptonina dance though. Despite Clark being Kryptonian, he hadn’t been raised on Krypton, he had no way to learn or reason to learn those dances.

Kara had though.

(And, perhaps, one day, it wouldn’t be a bad thing to incorporate some Kryptonian dances in a similar situation…)

He was tempted to start leading her into one such dance, the tempo of the music playing was similar enough from what he recalled, but he didn’t want to disturb the party or draw too much attention. According to Kara, weddings were about the couple not the guests.

“Hey,” Kara’s voice drifted over to him

He looked at her, surprised he’d even looked away without realizing it, and locked eyes with her. And then, just like that, the entire room melted away and it was just them, swaying to the beat. No wedding, no guests, no cousin who could decide he wasn’t good enough for his cousin and tell Kara to leave him…

(Not that Kara could ever be told what to do.)

(But Clark wouldn’t exactly be wrong and Kara DID value the truth over anything…)

He shook his head, focusing his thoughts on Kara once more. She was gorgeous in her dress. It was a light blue gown, fitted on top and flowing to her knees. It matched her eyes so well and brought them out to the point he could easily get lost just glancing at her. Her hair was held back by two clips and her glasses were firmly on her nose. She’d worn flats instead of heels despite how much Alex had pushed her to wear them.

(Alex had stated it would help relieve the height difference between them. Kara had argued that, god forbid one of Clark’s enemies interrupted, she wanted to fight and it was easier to do it in flats.)

(When he’d gone to Eliza for advice on whose side to take (as both girls had turned on him to demand he talk to the other one), if it was best to side with his girlfriend as many claim or the sister he was trying to win approval of. Eliza had secretly told him that Kara had confessed she actually loved their height difference, that she could more easily rest her head on his chest and hear his heartbeat. Something he’d been sworn to secrecy over.)

(And told him that he should side with Kara because Alex would give him more points for sticking to what made Kara happy than herself.)

“Hey,” he repeated, his voice soft enough where only two people in that room would hear it over the music.

Kara smiled.

And Mon-El couldn’t help himself, “You look beautiful.”

“You don’t look too bad yourself.”

That was all they said as they continued to dance, looking into each others eyes as they moved.

It wasn’t until Mon-El felt a hand on his shoulder that they even remembered where they were as he turned only to come face to face with Clark.

“Mind if I cut in?” Clark asked with a joking tone in his voice.

And it was then they realized the song had come to an end and changed into one that did not warrant such a slow swaying dance, and they hadn’t even noticed.

“Clark!” Kara beamed at him, throwing her arms around her cousin and hugging him tight. And wasn’t that funny. She could always remember his hugs feeling wonderful, because he squeezed her tight and she could FEEL it. But now it just wasn’t tight enough…not compared to Mon-El’s hugs.

“Kara,” Clark laughed. “You saw me an hour ago!”

Kara blushed faintly as she pulled away, instantly linking her arm with Mon-El’s. “Clark…this is Mon-El.” She looked at him, a soft expression on her face. “My boyfriend.”

“Sir.” Mon-El reached out a hand to shake Clark’s, praying to the gods he wouldn’t notice how sweaty they were.

Clark just smiled and reached out to shake the offered hand. “Good to finally meet you!” He sounded cheerful.

(That was a good thing right?)

“I’m going to go hug Lois,” Kara suddenly announced, giving a sly grin to the men and rushing off to the blushing bride.

Mon-El suddenly wished he had a superpower to burrow into the earth now that he was left alone with Superman.

“Mon-El.” Clark reached out a hand to grip the man’s shoulder. “Breathe.”

Mon-El took a deep breath, not realizing he’d not even tried to breath since Kara walked off.

“It’s alright,” Clark reassured him, still with the kind smile on his face. “You have nothing to worry about. Trust me.”

“I just…I want to make a good impression,” Mon-El admitted, knowing that for both Supers the truth was always the best way to go.

“Oh you already did,” Clark actually chuckled at that, stepping to Mon-El’s side and just looking out at Lois and Kara talking excitedly. “Kara hasn’t shut up about you.”

“What?” Mon-El’s head snapped to look at Clark so fast even Clark was afraid he’d get whiplash.

Clark nodded. “At first it was about how you weren’t Kryptonian but a Daxamite, not that that means much to me given I’d never even heard of Daxam till Kara mentioned it.” He seemed to be reassuring Mon-El with those words, that he didn’t hold the same prejudices and grudges that had lead to him and Kara having such a rocky start. “But it changed. Little by little. It became how you were annoying and wasting potential,” he rolled his eyes playfully at that, in the way only an older brother could do when a younger sister got too far ahead of herself, “But then how you wanted to be better. She talked about your training, the bar, working there, all the things she learned about you. And trust me, when I say ALL the things, I mean ALL of it.” He gave Mon-El a teasting sort of exasperated look. “I didn’t need to know half the things she told me. Like you drink milk out of a straw?” He shrugged helplessly at that, but there was amusement in his eyes. “And soon enough she was just gushing about you.”

“And I’m sure she told you about the lies too.”

Clark was silent a moment, appreciating that Mon-El was being candid and not trying to excuse himself. “She did.” He held up a hand quickly to keep Mon-El from speaking. “I know my cousin, and judging just how she spoke about you those first few times, I can understand why you wouldn’t want to tell her. And I can see the logic in keeping it quiet after the fact. It’s not like I just go around talking about being from Krypton. There is no Krypton anymore. Why talk about being a prince if you’re prince of nothing?”

Mon-El let out a breath at that, honest to gods surprised Clark seemed to get it.

“Hey,” Clark turned serious, “I’ve kept my fair share of secrets, especially from Lois. Things like that, secrets that are THAT big, take time to come out. You can only say them when YOU feel ready and no one else but you can say when that is. And if it’s never, then it’s never.” He shrugged. “It wasn’t her place to demand you tell her all your secrets, and it was YOUR past that you’re entitled to share IF you want.” He gave Mon-El a wry smile. “You just have the misfortune of dating a journalist and we are notorious for digging into the past till we find the truth, whether people want it discovered or not.”

“Thank you,” Mon-El whispered, his voice raw that Clark was being so understanding. “I am sorry it hurt her though.”

“The way she talks about you, I’d honestly be surprised if you weren’t.” He smiled. “So you see, you really didn’t have to worry about impressions. I got a pretty good one off you just listening to Kara talk.” They glanced over at the girls again, Kara seeming to be examining a detail of Lois’s dress. “And, in all seriousness, even if I hadn’t, I would have had one before Kara even introduced us.”

“A good one, I hope?” Mon-El managed to work out past the lump in his throat, his heart racing faster now that he was back to thinking what Clark’s initial thoughts on him would be.

Clark looked over at Mon-El. 

“Lois and I were dancing,” he began, “But that didn’t mean we didn’t notice anything else. Unlike SOME people,” he teased, actually elbowing Mon-El lightly. “I was looking at you two dancing. Watching you, watching her, watching you watching her. I saw the look in your eyes, the way you held her, how you both looked together. I see the same look in Lois’s eyes when she looks at me, the same look in the mirror when I even think about her. I can tell, just by looking, how much my cousin means to you. And that’s all I’ve ever wanted for her. To find someone that loves her and makes her happy.”

“I do love her,” Mon-El agreed. “And I try my best to make her happy. I get it wrong sometimes, a lot of times, but I try. Because her happiness means so much to me. I feel like…like…”

“Like you can only be happy when SHE is?”

Mon-El nodded.

Clark smiled. “That’s all I want for her. She chose YOU, Mon-El. And I trust my cousin’s judgment. I trust what I see with my own two eyes. And I trust what my heart and gut tells me. You’re a good match for her.”

Mon-El let out a relieved breath. “You know, I was half expecting you to hate me just because I’m dating her, or because I’m a Daxamite. I was dreading the “Hurt her and I’ll hurt you” talk from you more than the one I got from Alex.”

“Makes sense,” Clark considered. “I CAN actually hurt you…”

“You’ve never seen Alex angry have you?”

Clark laughed. “Can’t say that I have.”

“Trust me. You don’t want to see it.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Clark reached out and clasped Mon-El on the shoulder, gaining his attention. “I don’t think I need to give you that talk, Mon-El. Because, from what I’ve seen, you love her so much that hurting her would hurt you much worse than Alex or I ever could.”

“It would.” Mon-El swallowed hard. “It has.”

Clark nodded. “Relationships take effort. They require compromise, trust, respect and love. It’s taking the good days and the bad. It’s tough and it hurts sometimes, but as long as the love is strong enough, everyday, even the bad ones, are worth it.”

“Kara is worth everything.”

Clark smiled. “That’s all I needed to hear.” Suddenly his head turned to the girls again, hearing something, a deep sigh leaving him as he shook his head. “And that is our cue to head over there before Kara can really get into the baby-Kal-El stories.”

Mon-El laughed as he followed Superman over to his bride, just catching the tail end of Kara saying something about teething and trying to bite her fingers off, the conversation soon veering off into talk of the food about to be served.

(This time Kara blamed Clark for the pictures Alex already had printed out and at the ready by the time she and Mon-El got back to National City.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't remember if Clark and Lois were married when he came to help Supergirl or if the show even mentioned it. But let's just pretend they weren't married at that point yet.
> 
> Also added more to my headcanon about Daxam customs with the bit about women being more important. I feel like it came across to me with Rhea that she was sort of incharge and the king just went with it for the most part. So maybe it was a thing, despite having a King (which, if we base that on Earth-titles, means he was the heir/prince before becoming King, then marrying Rhea to make her queen. Because if it was Rhea that was the princess and became queen, Lar Gand would have been prince consort or something...ish? idk alien customs), the women were ultimately the ones with the most power OVER the men instead of having power in general, which I guess would just equal to the same thing in the end.


	20. Dancing

It was ironic, Alex couldn’t help but think, how games that were just so stupid as kids became something so hysterical as adults. Growing up, she and Kara both had rolled their eyes whenever their parents tried to get them to play charades with them. It was just such a lame game and so old-school, way TOO old-school for them. It was never as great a time as their parents seemed to think it was and, after a time, it just sort of stopped happening.

(Thank god.)

But now, as an adult, sitting in Kara’s apartment, with Maggie, James, and Winn around her while they all watched Mon-El do a seriously BAD imitation of…something…she honestly wasn’t sure what the clue was…she could not stop laughing or wondering why she’d ever thought it was just a stupid game. It had happened so out of the blue too. They’d all been at Kara’s for game night, and the conversation had somehow gotten to their least favorite games and when she and Kara had started on a rant about charades, Mon-El had asked what it was.

And the gates of hell had opened up at their complete and utter shock that he had never, in all his time on Earth, learned what charades were.

Which meant they HAD to play it, to give him a true introduction to just how BAD a game it was.

Only for it to take the most unexpected twist and end up being undeniably fun.

They were all just sitting there, laughing at his miming, with the radio playing in the background for some white noise and it was GOOD.

Great, even.

Mon-El was SO bad at the game, always getting the rules confused and mispronouncing and misunderstanding the clues, and his miming left so much to be desired that it was just comical and getting all of them to laugh harder than they had in their lives. Mon-El, to his credit, wasn’t upset that they were basically laughing at him and his utter failings at the game, but seemed genuinely happy they were happy and pleased to be of service in providing entertainment.

“Alright, alright, I suck,” Mon-El had to laugh with them when a timer on Maggie’s phone rang out, signaling he hadn’t gotten anyone to guess what he was acting out in the timeframe they set.

“What were you even trying to do?” Winn wiped at his eyes, the tears nearly falling from them, his face red from the laughter.

Mon-El plopped down on the couch beside Kara, his teammate for the night. “Gone with the Wind.”

He had no idea what that was, but the title seemed explanatory enough.

“Man, I thought you were trying to tell us it was “Twister.”” James shook his head.

Kara had to nod at that, Mon-El spinning in a circle and waving his arms certainly seemed cyclone like with his superspeed. “It’s ok.” She patted his shoulder, a wide smile on her face. “You did your best.”

Mon-El gave her a small smile in return. “What even IS “Gone with the Wind?””

“Oh no,” Maggie pointed a warning finger at him, “Do NOT open those floodgates. We are NOT watching that!”

Alex let out a laugh, winding an arm around Maggie’s shoulders. “Kara doesn’t have that movie, thank god.”

“I could always look it up on my Netfl…” Winn began.

“No, no,” James cut in quickly, “I um, I really want to finish this game. We’re winning after all.”

“Actually, I think WE are winning,” Maggie pointed out.

“Alright, alright, next round.” Kara stood up and made her way to the front of her friends, reaching out to pull a piece of paper from a hat with cards in it, reading her task.

She snorted at how easy it was and began by holding up two fingers.

“Two words!” Alex nearly screamed before anyone could speak.

Kara nodded and pointed at her, then held up one finger.

“First word!” Winn beat Alex to that one. “Take that!” He taunted Alex, only to duck aside when she threw a pillow at him.

Kara nodded…and then mimed a square shape with her pointer fingers.

“Square!” James and Maggie shouted, though James was just slightly faster, earning a glare from the woman.

Kara pointed at him and then held up two fingers.

“Second word…” Maggie focused on what Kara’s next action was.

Kara let out a small laugh and began to sway in place, with one hand on her stomach and the other out. But it didn’t seem to get the reaction she wanted so she changed it to odd hand gestures with her arms while swinging her hips back and forth.

“What…” Mon-El frowned, not sure what she was doing.

“The Macarena!” the rest of the humans screamed as one.

Kara made eager gestures, moving on to some odd move that involved hooking one hand behind her head and extending her other arm in a jerking motion as she moved it before her.

“The sprinkler?” This time Alex seemed confused, until Kara made more eager gestures.

“Dance moves!” Winn realized.

“Square Dancing!” Maggie shouted and Kara tapped her nose and pointed at her as she turned to high-five Alex.

“And Point for us!” Alex smirked at the boys.

Kara shook her head at how competitive her sister was and looked at Mon-El, who seemed confused. She moved to sit down next to him, resting a hand on his knee to draw his attention to her. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he said quickly, only to glance around and see everyone else looking at him in concern. He’d be touched at their care if it really wasn’t such a small thing he was thinking. “Ok, so it was just, the clues and that first dance…I thought I knew the answer, but I realized it would only apply if we weren’t on Earth.”

Kara’s brow scrunched in confusion this time. “What did you think I was hinting at?”

“Kiri-Nilor.”

Kara’s breath left her at that, blinking quickly as tears began to fill her eyes at the mere word.

“What’s Kir…Kil…whatever you just said?” Winn asked.

Mon-El glanced at them, but moved his hand to rest on Kara’s on his knee, turning hers to lace their fingers in support. Seeing how affected she was just by the word, he was sure his answer would just cause her more nostalgic pain.

“It was a dance on Krypton,” he explained. “In English, I suppose it translates to “The Paired.” It’s a dance that’s done with footwork in a squared formation.”

“So when you saw her doing dance moves with a square hint, you thought it was that.” Alex finished for him.

He nodded. “But I realized it wouldn’t be the answer to an Earth-based game.”

“How would you even know Kryptonian dances?” James inquired.

Mon-El shrugged. “Diplomacy.”

They nodded at that, now aware of his lineage and identity. It made sense that, as a prince, and with Krypton being so close, there would be some sort of diplomatic relation between the planets. Parties or events where representatives would attend and be expected to be aware of the other’s culture.

It was also helpful to know if a Kryptonian was trying to "bewitch" a Daxamite into such a sacred dance, and in order to do that a Daxamite needed to know the dance. And, there HAD been a few inter-species marriages in the past, very very few and far between and for politics more than anything so it was good to know. It was also a needed to know dance so that, during such events, hostilities wouldn't arise if a Daxamite "hit on" one of the paired or made a comment about the dance that offended the Kryptonians. There were quite a few reasons he had to know the dance.

“Do you know the dance, Kara?” Alex glanced at her sister.

Kara swallowed hard. “It’s one of the first dances we learned.”

Mon-El squeezed her hand, understanding in a way the others couldn’t, just how important that dance was to the Kryptonians.

“It’s um…it’s not performed often,” Kara continued, feeling torn and yet relieved at the same time. It hurt to talk about things like that, something so important to her old culture, but it was a relief to be ABLE to talk about it now, to share it with people. 

Clark had been too young to learn it. And when she’d offered to teach him it, he’d refused. Because he didn’t feel the need to really know a Kryptonian dance when the only life he’d known was on Earth.

So she’d held back talking about things like that, more and more as she grew up. Because she was on Earth now, not Krypton, and she had to adapt to Earth dances and customs.

“Why not?” Maggie frowned. “Was it some sort of “Dirty Dancing?”” She nudged Alex at the pun of a movie too.

“Now that is a movie I would not mind watching.” James joked, trying to lighten the tension.

Kara gave a small smile at that. “It was a sort of courtship dance, I guess would be the best way to describe it. It’s called “The Paired” for that reason. It’s like when people throw an engagement party, two people would do the dance in front of others to represent their new relationship.”

It was one of the few times the Kryptonians allowed such things as parties. A new relationship was a new venture and discovery to be made, new alliances to be formed, and only done in serious instances, typically among the higher-up houses of the planet, of which hers had been included.

“When Krypton was destroyed…”

She didn’t need to say the rest for them to hear her unspoken words. When Krypton was destroyed, when all her people besides her cousin perished, she would never be able to have that dance with a partner in that setting.

Mon-El was silent a long while, just gazing at Kara’s sorrowful face, the heartbreak in her eyes as she relived the devastation of losing her planet…

When his ears picked up on something that made a smile grow on his face.

He stood suddenly, startling the others, and moved to the small radio Kara had playing, turning up the song playing. He had no idea what song it was or who sang it, what the lyrics might be, but it didn’t matter because the tempo…it was perfect. The beat and the music…it was like Rao was giving him this gift to Kara. Ignoring the person singing, the song was almost identical to what he recalled “The Paired” sounded like, if perhaps just a bit faster.

He moved over to Kara and held out his hand to her. She didn’t seem to realize it yet, what he had about the music, because she looked confused even as she took his hand and allowed him to pull her up. He walked them over to an open space and stationed her in the right spot, moving to where the male partner would be.

And then he held up his hand to her, his fingers towards the ceiling, palm facing her, his other arm bent behind his back as he turned to the side, readying position.

And it was like a light bulb went off in her mind as her comet-blue eyes widened at her sharp inhale. 

For one brief moment, he feared he’d made a gross misstep in doing this. Because it WAS a very serious dance on Krypton, done between those who were committed and confident that they were a match that Rao smiled upon and had blessed. He’d feared he might have insulted her by presuming not only that about their relationship (even if he was more than sure he felt it on his part) but that he, a Daxamite, would be allowed to partake in a Kryptonian ritual like this.

But then Kara smiled, beamed at him really, and lifted her own hand to mirror his, her body facing the opposite direction as his own…

And then they danced.

He wouldn’t be able to explain it to anyone what it was like, the moves involved. He only barely remembered it and was focusing so much on not ruining this moment for Kara. If someone put paint on their shoes, their footwork would build up in a square shape as they worked, moving opposite each other, and towards each other, in sync as it was said. The entire dance was done without touching, hands always a hairsbreadth away from each other, symbolizing, he’d been told, the temptation of touch. The square shape instead of a more traditional circle pattern, represented the hardships of a relationship, the edges, the sharp turns it could take, but how they always worked within it and never stepped foot outside of it, representing commitment. They remained mirror images of each other, duality and challenge, man and woman, disagreement and agreement. 

And through it all their eyes remained locked, stepping closer and back, to the side and back, hands above and below, toes nearly touching and spaced. But their eyes remained locked, it was important. Kryptonians believed, much like humans, that the eyes were the windows to the soul (Daxamites believed the soul was revealed at the bottom of a bottle, for all truths poured out like a sweet wine) and only by keeping eye contact could you be assured of your love’s intentions and truth. 

Mon-El couldn’t look away even if he wanted to, her eyes were always so blue they pulled him in and he had no will to fight it.

And seeing Kara’s smile grow softer and softer, her eyes holding and revealing more love and happiness, why would he WANT to look away from that?

It was only as the dance wound down that things changed. The very last steps, the last notes, where when contact was allowed and the two stepped closer to each other, hands at either side of them and held up…till their palms touched and fingers interlaced, chests touching, toes touching, noses touching, gazing at each other and breathing each other’s air. A symbolism of coming together after a long hardship, being allowed this, and sharing all that came with it. Facing each other head on as equals.

Kara, however, surprised him by adding a new move to the dance when she pushed on her toes and kissed him. In thanks for giving her this piece of her home back. In happiness to finally share this dance with someone as important to her as Mon-El was. In relief that she wasn’t alone, that she’d found her partner, her equal. And in love, because this dance was not something she would do with just anyone…and he had given it back to her just as well.

She didn’t even care that she’d done such an intimate and important dance in front of her sister and friends nor that she’d kissed (and kept kissing literally till her superhuman lungs couldn’t continue anymore) her boyfriend in front of them either. It was too special a moment to feel embarrassed about.

(She didn’t even care that Alex had recorded the entire thing. In fact, this time she’d asked her sister to send her a copy of the video too.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No idea what their issue with "Gone with the wind" is, but it happened :-)
> 
> I really wanted to use the "Dancing" prompt to be something more related to Krypton than Daxam here, to be something Kara's lost that Mon-El can give back to her.


	21. Cooking/Baking

When Mon-El came home (well, to Kara’s apartment, but it was certainly more of a home to him than the DEO) that night, the very last thing he expected to find was Kara using her freeze breath on some lump in a pan that was currently on fire while the entire apartment began to fill with smoke. Or…actually…it seemed like the smoke had already been there judging by the Tupperware containers that were currently taped over the sprinkler systems running through the room to prevent the smoke from reaching them.

“Damn it!”

THAT shocked Mon-El even more than the scene before him, hearing Kara swearing like that. 

He stepped closer, honestly surprised she hadn’t seemed to notice he was there given her superhearing. She was hunched over the burnt mass in the pan, her hands nearly crushing the counter from where she gripped it on either side of the pan, with her head bowed.

And it was then that he saw the true magnitude of what he’d walked in on.

There were pots and pans on every available surface, with food containers and bags of ingredients lying open on every other point. The sink was already filled with pans and lids and mixing utensil. The floor and walls and even the ceiling had splatters of some sort of batter and what looked like sauce stuck to it…

(And was that a strand of spaghetti dangling from the ceiling?)

There were wrappers and empty bags stuffed into the garbage, piling up way too high with paper towels and other rags that seemed to be attempts to clean something up. 

Kara herself seemed in a right state, mumbling to herself under her breath so fast even he couldn’t make out what she was saying. There was flour and batter in her hair, her hands were caked with the stuff, and her apron…he was pretty sure it was meant to be pink but it had such a mishmash of different colors on it he wasn’t sure any more.

“Ok.” Kara took a deep, steadying breath and leaned back to look at the microwave (which had a green sort of slime dripping off the front of it). “Ok. It’s only 7. Mon-El won’t be here for another half hour. I can still call in take out and this can still work.”

Mon-El felt the breath leave him at her words. He’d left this morning to head to the bar for his first day as assistant manager, having just been promoted for all his good work as bartender. He was supposed to go in bright and early to help with inventory and learn how that was done, then set up the bar for the day and prepare it for the rush that night before heading out. When he’d left that morning after a rather wonderful night with Kara (cuddling was almost better than sex), Kara had been already awake and at the oven working on something she wouldn’t say what. She’d just smiled at him and ushered him off saying it was a surprise for him.

Clearly her plans had fallen through.

Clearly, quite a NUMBER of her plans and back up plans had fallen through if she was STILL at the oven trying to make something for him.

He couldn’t help the smile that made its way onto his face as he stepped up to her, winding his arms around her waist from behind, not caring at all about the gunk now sticking to his arms and sleeves as he did so.

“What can still work?” he whispered in her ear.

Kara would have jumped out of her skin at the suddenness of it all had he not been steadying her with his grip. She spun around in his arms, her eyes wide and face sheepish as she saw him smiling at her. “Mon-El! What are you doing back so soon?! You said 8!”

He nodded, leaning in to kiss her before he answered. “The manager said we got things done pretty quick and all set up. That I could head out early if I wanted. And why wouldn’t I want an extra hour with you?”

Kara was sure she would have melted at his words had she not been such a tightly wound mess since about noon.

Mon-El just peered over her shoulder. “What are you making?”

Kara let out a near-wounded sound, letting her forehead flop forward to rest on his chest, not wanting to look him in the eye as she admitted to her failings. “Absolutely nothing.”

“Doesn’t look like nothing to me.”

She groaned. “I mean, I didn’t make anything at all. Nothing came out right.” She looked up at him and he felt his heart break at the actual devastation in her eyes. “I tried. I really did. I wanted to make you a nice dinner and a dessert to celebrate your promotion. I had it all planned out. Your favorite food,” she pointed at the spaghetti stuck to the ceiling, “Then your favorite dessert,” and then to what looked like a dried puddle of light brown milk staining her counter, “And then your second favorite dessert, which was the only thing I didn’t screw up because I didn’t make it…”

He looked behind him, where she was pointing, to see a small bag of red tube…red vines…lying on the kitchen table amongst some dishes and even candles she’d set aside to serve on.

He turned back to her with a crooked grin. “Actually, that’s my favorite candy, not my second favorite dessert.”

“I failed at that too!?”

Mon-El quickly kissed her at her near-freak out over getting it so wrong. “Oh, trust me, you could never fail at my second favorite dessert.”

“I find that incredibly hard to believe,” she deadpanned. “I failed at literally every attempt at cooking since this morning.”

“Well, you can’t really fail at being yourself…”

Kara’s eyes widened minutely at his words, at the implication that he would have loved to have HER for dessert, before she shook her head. “Stop being charming. I’m trying to sulk.”

“Ooh, but I hate when you sulk.” He reached out to lift her chin up so she’d look at him, wanting nothing more than to make her smile once more. “I hate when you’re sad. When you’re sad, I’m sad.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Hey, hey, hey,” he gently stroked her cheek with his thumb. “I appreciate this. I really do. It’s the thought that counts…that’s the saying right?”

“Yeah.” She still didn’t sound happy.

“Kara,” Mon-El spoke gently till her eyes flickered back to his. “Really. It means a lot to me. On Daxam, people did a lot of things for me, whatever I asked them to do. But it was never because they WANTED to, but it was their job. Or they did it to please me so that I’d please them in return. You…” he shook his head, trying to find the words. “You doing this just because you’re proud of me? Because you wanted to celebrate something I did? Because you care about me?” He swallowed hard. “It means the world to me. And so what if it became a little bit of a mess…” 

Kara snorted at that, her kitchen looked like a doomsday bomb had gone off. 

“It just tells me you put SO much effort into it and I’m touched. This is…this is literally the first time anyone had done something like this just because they were proud of me or wanted to celebrate something I’d done, something I’d earned.”

“Someone must have…” she began to argue.

But Mon-El shook his head. “No one.”

“I’m sorry,” she repeated, but for a completely different reason. It was heartbreaking to think that he’d gone his entire life without anyone being proud of him or celebrating his accomplishments, even small ones.

He shrugged. “It’s probably a good thing, in the long run. I don’t think I would have appreciated it quite as much as I do now.”

Kara glanced around her kitchen once more, at the dangling spaghetti, his favorite food since they’d watched “Lady and the Tramp” and he’d been obsessed with testing if two people could accidently eat the same strand of noodle and kiss. Then her eyes turned to the small brown stain, the melted caramel ice cream she’d tried to make by hand instead of buying it at the store. As much as his words were meant to reassure her, all she saw was her failure.

“Hey,” Mon-El called again, his smile still warm and fond. “I know this meant a lot to you, doing this for me, but…would it be alright if we celebrate by doing something I pick too?”

Kara nodded quickly, taking any opportunity to make up for her attempt by salvaging what was left of the night. It could still count as celebrating his accomplishment if she went along with whatever he wanted without fuss, even if it meant going to a club or dancing or something else equally Daxamiteish.

“Alright. So…you need to go take a shower and get changed. As much as I find the flour and batter adorable on you, I know you wouldn’t like to leave the house like that.”

Kara’s hand immediately flew to her face and hair, grimacing as she felt the evidence of her failure coated onto her.

“And then, we’re going to go out to a nice place that serves potstickers and sit there and enjoy them freshly made instead of taken out. And we’ll walk back at a nice human speed…stop by the store to restock, and we can bake something…cookies or cupcakes or whatever you want…together.” He rubbed his hands up and down her arms in a soothing manner. “How does that sound?”

Kara couldn’t help but smile at that. “Perfect.”

“Go on.” He nodded towards the back bedroom and her shower, giving her one last lingering kiss before he let her go, happy she was smiling again.

And if she stepped out of the bathroom 15 minutes later (for one could not wash out batter and flour easily, not even with superspeed) to find Mon-El had cleaned her entire kitchen in that time? Well, no one needed to know how long it took them before they actually left the apartment to get some potstickers.

(How the hell Alex knew about the baking incident and had pictures of Kara covered in flour, Kara was determined to find out even if she had to beg Winn to hack into Alex’s computer or something to do it.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little tribute to the last episode and Kara's terrible cooking skills. I love that she can make pancakes but can't seem to make much of anything else :-)


	22. In Battle (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is going to be part 1 of a 3-part little series :-)

Kara had never before been quite so irritated by getting called into the DEO to handle some new alien threat. But when she and Mon-El were about to have a date night only for it to be interrupted, yet again, by a DEO SOS, well, anyone would be a bit peeved.

(She wasn’t sure if Alex or J’onn might secretly be finding ways to call her in from date night. But that made no sense, they both had warmed up to Mon-El and liked him.)

It was almost made worse by fact that Mon-El WASN’T annoyed by it. He was always so understanding when it happened, always the first to say they should head in before she could even begin to apologize for the interruption. He really was taking to the hero thing and taking her words about putting the people first to heart.

(She almost (ALMOST) missed the selfish Daxamite he’d been sometimes, when she wanted to be just a little selfish herself and he was there to remind her to be selfless. Honestly, would it be too much to ask for J’onn or Guardian, since he was just so eager, to step in here and there to just give her and her boyfriend ONE night where they could just date like normal?)

“So what have we got?” Kara called as she strode into the DEO, still in her date-night attire. She wasn’t about to change into her Supergirl outfit if there was even the slimmest chance this was just a simple situation the Martian Manhutner or Guardian or even a basic DEO agent could handle. Not that she really expected it would be. They wouldn’t have called her in if it was that easy.

A girl could hope though.

J’onn sighed and turned to the duo as they walked over to the command center. “I’m sorry about this.”

“It’s fine,” Mon-El spoke, a small smile on his face. “What can we do to help?”

Kara couldn’t help the small smile that grew on her face at his words.

“There was a break in at the Power Plant.” Alex joined them.

“Alien?”

Winn snorted at that. “Livewire.”

Kara’s entire expression hardened at the mention of the woman’s name. The seriousness of the situation was hitting her now, especially the part about the powerplant. If Leslie was there, then there was every chance something epically terrible was about to happen. For a woman that could utilize electricity to be at the greatest source of it in the city, it spelled nothing but trouble.

“We’re on it.” Kara stated, turning to fly off, the blur that she was morphing into red and blue before it even left the room.

Mon-El just pointed in the direction she’d flown off in and supersped after her, his own blur not changing much from his black suit to his black uniform as he went, though a flash of red appeared to join it.

Winn held up his hands in innocence when J’onn turned a pointed look at him. “It IS his suit. I double and triple checked it before giving it to him myself.”

J’onn let out a firm nod and turned to watch the screens as the DEO brought up security footage of the powerplant.

*************************************************************************************************************************************

Kara landed with a hard thump, squatting momentarily before straightening, looking around the darkened courtyard before the plant with a hard gaze. She didn’t even flinch when Mon-El sped up beside her, his cape billowing behind him.

“Alright.” Mon-El clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “What’s our game…”

“Shhh!” Kara hissed quickly, squinting her eyes to use her x-ray vision on the plant. It wouldn’t be much help if Leslie was in her energized form in the grid, but it would at least give her an idea of hostages. “Great,” she muttered, spotting just that, a mass of about ten people huddled in a group and sitting on the ground, likely tied up or being ordered there.

No sign of Leslie though.

“What?” Mon-El glanced at her, frowning because he couldn’t see what she did.

“Hostages.”

“Not great.” He agreed.

“We need to get them out first and then deal with Leslie.”

“Agreed.” Mon-El nodded. “I say we split up.”

“What?” Kara’s head snapped to look at him.

He shrugged, nonchalant. “One of us should lure Leslie out,” he began, assuming that, because she’d only mentioned hostages, that Leslie wasn’t in there as well. “While the other gets the people to safety.”

“No.” Kara shook her head. “It would never work.”

Mon-El frowned at that, it sounded like a perfectly logical plan to him. “Why not?”

“Because if you go after Leslie, she’ll massacre you and then I’ll be distracted and have to come save you. She wouldn’t even bother following me to the hostages if she knows it would draw me out to help you and leave them behind or leave you able to come help me. And if I go after Leslie, she’ll stay back to attack the hostages and whoever goes to save them to draw me out too. She’s after ME, Mon-El not you. You’d just get in her way.”

“Maybe I should get in her way,” Mon-El mused.

“You wouldn’t be able to take her on.”

“Says you.”

“Yes, Mon-el, says me!” she snapped at him, making him frown. “Because you weren’t ready to face her last time, either time, and you aren’t ready now!”

“I’ve gotten better,” Mon-El reminded her. “I have a suit and I’ve trained, I’ve gone with you on other calls and…”

“And you proved you can’t handle those calls by yourself either!” she huffed. “I can’t leave you alone or you’ll get yourself killed and I don’t need that right now, not when Leslie could be anywhere.”

“Yes, she could be anywhere, so let me draw her out,” Mon-El argued. “I can handle her. Maybe even better than you.”

“Oh really?” she scoffed at the thought.

Mon-El’s jaw tensed at that, at how harsh Kara was being about his abilities. “I’m not the one vulnerable to electricity, remember?”

“But you are the one vulnerable to screwing up when you don’t listen to me, remember?” Kara mocked, starting to walk towards the building. “We go for the hostages together and that’s it.”

Mon-El wanted to argue to that so badly. He knew that Leslie was one of the few criminals Kara faced that just got under her skin and made her lash out at people, let her frustrations get in the way. But her words were cutting. He knew there was some truth to them. He hadn’t listened well in the past, he had jeopardized people’s lives, and he’d failed to handle himself in situations like this. But he was trying to do better. He’d thought he’d finally proven that to her.

Apparently not.

He let out a long breath and followed her anyway. If Leslie was waiting for them, Kara was going to need his help even more with the hostages there to distract her on top of him, apparently, being one as well.

*************************************************************************************************************************************

It should have been eerie, how dark and silent the power plant was as the two heroes walked through it. But Mon-El hardly had time to notice as Kara kept on a brisk pace towards where she’d seen the hostages located. He was tempted to ask her why she was walking instead of speeding in there, but it didn’t seem like the best time when her face was set in a scowl and her shoulders were tensed, her hands in fists at her sides.  
She’d probably just snap at him that she was keeping an ear out for Leslie’s tell-tale crackle of electricity before she appeared.

Though, if Kara was going for the art of surprise…punching in the door so it fell on the floor probably destroyed that notion.

Instantly they could see the eyes of terrified hostages sitting on the ground and staring at them.

That seemed to startle Kara back into action as she barked out an order to him to help her get them untied and ungagged. He rushed to help her, but as soon as they were in the room, electricity crackled and a grid pattern of lightning lit up in the opened doorway, Leslie jumping out from the middle of it, trapping them.

“Supergirl, what a surprise that you came for the hostages first,” Leslie taunted.

Kara stood straight, standing in the path between Leslie and the humans just starting to get to their feet. “Leslie,” she greeted tensely. She jerked her head to the side, not taking her eyes off Leslie even as she spoke to Mon-El. “Get them out of here.”

Mon-El shook his head minutely as he stopped at her side. “I can distract her while you…”

“No!” Kara’s expression hardened. “Get them out of here. I’VE got Leslie.”

He wanted to scream at how she wasn’t listening to him. He knew her methods in dealing with criminals, brute force. But Leslie would take more than that, something Kara hadn’t seemed to realize yet. She was so used to beating her enemies into submission that she couldn’t see the same tactic wouldn’t work, especially not while she herself was vulnerable to Leslie’s attacks. It was going to take something else…something he actually had a thought about, but he needed Kara to LET him do it, let him at least try it…

“Kara,” he said quietly so that no one else but she could hear him, “Just this once, listen to me. Let ME take her on while you get them out. I can buy you enough time to…”

“I am TRUSTING you to get them out of here, Valor.”

Mon-El let out a low breath at that before turning on his heel and quickly moving to the hostages, helping the last one up. He did his best not to look back as he heard Kara take off and launch herself at Leslie, to ignore the sounds of electricity buzzing and the sounds of Kara grunting as she was hit with the bolts.

“Come on,” he began as he ushered the people towards the back emergency doors. “We need to get you all out and to safety, quickly.”

He shoved the door open with his strength, ignoring the blaring alarms that went off as it was forced through, standing in the doorway to move the people onwards. He spared only a single glance at Kara when the last person made it past him, to see her held against the doorway grid with two bands of electricity around her wrists. He was about to take a step towards her to help, when Leslie got too close and Kara kicked out with her feet, sending the woman flying back and losing enough control of her power to drop Kara to the ground.

He swallowed hard and turned to go, rushing off after the humans to get them outside and fast.

And he did. He did exactly what Kara had asked. He’d gotten them to the bottom stairs of the courtyard and out into the open before he’d turned and supersped back up to the control room, bursting through the door in just enough time to see Kara on her back, Leslie standing above her with a hand out, a band of electricity around Kara’s throat as she struggled to breathe through its grip on her, choking her.

He didn’t even hesitate to launch himself at Leslie, tackling her to the side with enough force to send them both into the doorway grid and crash through it. Leslie was so winded she released Kara, who sat up, gasping and coughing for air, and Mon-El felt a burst of energy pass through him as his skin seemed to absorb the energy that was in the doorway.

He quickly reached out to grab Leslie’s hand, needing to get her while she was still dazed, and grabbed an item from a carefully hidden pocket in his belt, to slap it into her hand, pressing it there and holding on as tightly as he could when the woman got her bearings.

Leslie let out an inhuman screech and turned into a blast of electricity, preparing to jump into the ceiling lights, but Mon-El held tight to her even as she disappeared before his eyes.

He fell to his knees, slightly in shock and slightly winded, looking down at the item in his hand. He felt a slow grin spread across his face as he observed the device, before he spun around, eager to tell Kara what he’d done…only to falter when he saw her expression.

Kara was not happy.

Not at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's going to be more later about Kara's actions/reactions/thoughts in this chapter along with Mon-El's frustrations. We'll also find out what Mon-El's plan was and if he succeeded too :-)


	23. Arguing (Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 of a 3-part little series. We're going to see the aftermath of Karamel's battle scene. But there will also be some arguing between the Danvers sisters. Alex may bring up some hard truths for Kara to face before she's willing to hear Mon-El out. This chapter will contain some of my interpretations of scenes from the show.

“What were you thinking!?” Kara demanded as she stormed into the DEO, Mon-El trailing behind her with a deep-set frown on his face.

“I was thinking she was choking you and I had to stop her,” he answered.

“Ha!” Kara scoffed in an angry way. “I was fine!”

“Your face was literally turning red, Kara!”

“Well your plan backfired, Mon-El.” She whipped around to face him, her face red now from anger as she poked him in the chest. “I TOLD you to get the humans to safety.”

“I did!”

“And I TOLD you to leave Leslie to me.”

“I just wanted to help you!”

“But you didn’t!” she snapped, actually yelling at him now. “You didn’t help me! You made it worse! I was handling her. I would have thought of something and I would have captured her. But now, because of you and your constant inability to LISTEN TO ME, she got away! AGAIN! Argh!” she let out a frustrated scream at the end of that.

“And if she did?” Mon-El argued, moving around to get in her way as she tried to stalk off. “You really think it would have helped anyone if YOU died trying to be the god damn hero!?”

“I was doing my JOB!”

“So was I!”

“No, you weren’t. Because your job means listening to me and doing what I tell you to do!”

“Oh yes.” He rolled his eyes. “Of course, I should ALWAYS listen to the mighty Supergirl.”

“YES!”

“Even when she’s wrong?”

“I was not wrong!”

“You said you could handle her,” he pointed out, almost sounding smug. “And I came back in to see her about to choke the life out of you. Yes.” He clapped mockingly. “Expert handling.”

“And there! That’s what I mean!” She pointed at him. “We had a plan and…”

“What plan?” he cut in. “Go in with guns blazing? Yeah, because that worked SO well last time! I was TRYING to tell you my plan and you blew it off!”

“Because it never would have worked!”

“We don’t KNOW that!”

“And we won’t know if MY plan would have worked either because you ran in there like a thoughtless Daxamite! You came back when I explicitly told you to make sure the humans were safe!”

“They were!” he insisted. “I learned my lesson. I made sure I got them all to safety before I came back to help you!”

“I didn’t need your help! I’m Supergirl, I can handle myself!”

“I am your PARTNER. It’s my job to help you help the people.”

“Out in the field, I am your BOSS. It’s MY job to tell you what to do and for you to LISTEN to me and do it so you don’t get yourself killed again!”

Mon-El, for some reason, fell suddenly quiet at that.

“What?” Kara continued. “No argument there? No comeback? Because I’m right and you know it. I’m the teacher, you’re the student. I talk, you listen. I tell you to do something, you do it.”

Mon-El remained quiet, just…looking at her with such an odd expression Kara felt her anger starting to drain away at the sight of it. It was like…sorrow mixed with resignation and heartbreak.

“What?” she demanded, not wanting to feel guilty for that look. Because there was nothing to feel guilty about. HE had been in the wrong this time, just like every other time.

Mon-El just shook his head.

“YOU do NOT get to be mad at ME over this!” she warned him.

But Mon-El’s next words were so far from anger.

“This is never going to work, is it?”

“What?”

Kara’s heart stopped.

“This. Being partners.” He gestured between them. “It is never going to work.” He swallowed hard as though just realizing something. “It was never going to work, was it?”

“It’s working just fine.”

“No. It’s not,” he disagreed. “And I…” He seemed to struggle with his words here. “I don’t think I can do this.”

“Do what?” This time it was Kara’s voice breaking as fear crept into her at how he was speaking.

“Be your “partner.” Because I’m not. You’re never going to actually LET me be.” He looked down, gathering himself, but speaking quickly before she could get another word in. “I should have realized,” he muttered. “All this time, I’d hoped but…” He took a breath and looked at her. “You’re never going to trust me. You’re never going to let me stand with you instead of just beside you. And you’re never going to want me to. Not really. Because a Kryptonian can never trust a Daxamite.”

“I DO trust you…”

Mon-El cut off her argument with a single hand held up. “You deserved better than me lying to you. And I…even though I’ve done a shitload of terrible things, I’ve tried to be better Kara. I’ve tried SO hard. But no matter what I’ve done, I deserve to be treated as an equal to someone.”

“You are my equal.”

Mon-El let out a heartbroken scoff at that. “You literally just said a minute ago that you were my superior.”

“Yes, but on the field and…”

“On the field, where we should be partners. Where YOU agreed we would be a team. But every time we go out there to try and be one, it never happens. You push me away. You’re always pushing me away, Kara.”

They fell silent for a long while, Kara struggling to process what he was saying, refusing to believe it was what he seemed to mean it as.

“I don’t deserve to be yelled at and ignored, not by my partner and not by my girlfriend.”

“You’re not exactly innocent yourself.”

And with those words, Kara wanted to smack herself, because that was probably the absolute worst thing she could have said.

“And don’t think I don’t beat myself up for it.” Mon-El gave her a sorrowful look at how she was still throwing it back at him. “Don’t think I didn’t accept every consequence that came from it. Maybe…” He took another breath, tears in his eyes. “Maybe it’s time I’M not the one left with them.”

“What are you trying to say?”

Mon-El looked away, not able to bear the tears in her eyes and knowing he’d cave instantly if he looked at her. “If we can’t be partners on the field. I don’t know if we can off the field either. I just…I don’t know. I need to think. I need time.”

And instantly all of Kara’s hurt and sorrow turned to anger. “Well you’ve got it,” she snapped at him. “Come find me when you work out what you want.”

And with that she stalked off, leaving a somber Mon-El standing in place before he too turned and walked back to his cell in the DEO.

*************************************************************************************************************************************

“I mean can you believe him?!” Kara demanded as she paced her apartment, a silent Alex sitting on the couch watching her. “First he blatantly disregarded what I told him to do. Then he let Leslie escape. And now he’s saying I’M the problem in this relationship?”

“I don’t think he said that…” Alex tried to get a word in, but Kara was on a roll.

“I put everything on the line for him. I put time and effort into training him. I put my reputation on the line to have him be my protégé. I put my trust in him even when I shouldn’t have. And all he’s done is just break my trust and…”

“Weren’t you the one telling him you kept writing him off and he kept proving you wrong?”

Kara whirled on her sister. “So you’re on his side now?”

Alex held her hands up in surrender. “I am your sister, I will always be on your side. But Kara…” she shook her head. “Just because I’m on your side doesn’t mean I won’t call you out on things.”

“What is there to call me out on?” Kara demanded to know. “No. Go ahead. Tell me where I’m wrong.”

Alex was quiet for a long while. “Do you remember when you first landed on Earth and you were so scared you wouldn’t fit in? That everyone would just be able to tell you were an alien?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“I made a promise to you that I would help you be, not only a good human, but a good person. And it’s my job, as your older sister, to help you be that type of person. So what I’m going to say, you’re not going to like. But I really need you to listen to me, sister-to-sister.”

Kara frowned at that, knowing that this must be serious for Alex to go so low as to call on their bond of sisterhood. Usually she only pulled that when she really and deeply needed Kara to sit down and listen, to not talk or excuse or defend herself, but to hear Alex out first, absorb what she was saying, and then react.

Kara let out a huff and plopped down on the couch. She made a “go on” gesture in a big sweeping motion signaling Alex to begin.

“Mon-El had a good plan.”

“Alex…”

Alex held her hand up to silence her, being firm now in her tone. “We could hear you both over the comms and his plan HAD merit. You know how Mon-El is, he’s irritating when he wants to be. He could have easily lured Leslie out into the open and distracted her so you could help the hostages. Hostages, I might add, you’ve repeatedly told Mon-El should come first always, above and beyond taking down the alien threat. But you WERE focused on facing Leslie more so than seeing them safe in this one instance.”

“If you were listening, I explained why that wouldn’t work. She’d use him as bait.”

“You’re assuming he couldn’t handle her,” Alex pointed out. “Kara, you are Supergirl, your only real weakness is Kryptonite. But you ARE vulnerable to electricity. Mon-El isn’t. He can absorb it, or have you forgotten his first few days on Earth, draining the DEO to heal?”

Kara was silent.

Alex eyed her sister, going for another tactic. “If we were in an eating competition, and the choices were blueberry pies or hotdogs, and we were teamed up and had to pick one to eat, which would you pick?”

“Blueberries,” Kara said instantly, though her grimace said she would not be happy about it.

“Why?”

“You’re allergic to blueberries.”

“So you’re saying that, because I have a weakness against them, YOU would stand up in my place and take them head on so I wouldn’t?”

“You can’t honestly compare electricity to blueberries,” Kara argued.

“It’s the same point,” Alex insisted. “You wouldn’t want me to face something I’m weak against, not when you are perfectly capable of taking my place for me and letting me handle a different challenge. So why did you give Mon-El so much grief about letting him face Leslie?”

Kara was silent, contemplating that.

Alex took that as a good sign and continued. “He did what you said, he DID get the civilians out and to safety before he came back for you. Which is something even agents of the DEO are trained to do. “No one left behind,” remember? Two people facing Leslie will always be a better advantage than just one.”

“But I was handling it fine,” Kara remarked. “And now she’s escaped. Again.”

“Were you?” Alex gave her a pointed look that told her she did not believe at all that Kara had been handling it just fine.

“I would have thought of something.” Kara crossed her arms petulantly.

“So you didn’t actually have a plan?” Alex eyed Kara. “Not at all? Not even an idea? Or did you just run in there and plan to capture Leslie with the power of love? Did Mon-El have a plan?”

“Besides letting him lure her out?” Kara shrugged.

“You didn’t hear him out Kara,” Alex pointed out. “He seemed like he had an idea and you shot him down before he could give it.”

“It probably wouldn’t have…”

“Don’t you always complain about how you hate when Snapper does that to you?” Alex cut in. “When you want to run a story or even tell him an idea for a story and he shoots you down or ignores you or doesn’t even let you begin to talk about it? And yet you did the same to Mon-El.”

Kara looked down.

“Hey.” Alex reached out to rest a hand on Kara’s arm. “As not-good as that is, it IS actually a human thing to do. We all do it, especially when we’re focused or frustrated. And we usually don’t realize we’ve done it till someone else points it out.”

“Alright,” Kara admitted, “I should have let him talk.”

“And maybe you should have let him use his plan to lure Leslie out,” Alex prodded. But Kara gave her a hard look. “Hey, if he’d tried his plan and it failed, you would have every right to be as angry as you were. I’d back you up 110 percent in that case. But you didn’t even let him TRY. And he IS right about that Kara. We could all hear you shouting in the DEO. You can’t bring him to the game you’ve trained him for and then bench him before his first inning.”

“Since when do you use baseball examples?”

“Not the point.” Alex huffed. “What I’m saying is, HOW is he ever going to be ready to be a hero if you don’t let him actually DO anything heroic? Especially in a situation where you can stand there and observe, step in when you might need to. A situation as small as just Leslie instead of a bigger problem with more variables?”

“He’s not ready.” There was a tremor in her voice that made Alex pause, starting to suspect there was more than just Kara wanting to face Leslie herself or a fear for Mon-El not being trained enough that had led to Kara fighting him so much to allow her plan. But she shook her head, that would be a conversation Kara and Mon-El needed to have, she just had to get Kara to a place where she’d be willing to listen.

“According to you,” Alex mimicked Mon-El’s earlier words. “But you’re not him, Kara. You’re his mentor, you can’t assess if he’s ready or not if you don’t let him at least try. At that rate, Mon-El would be right in saying you’ll never be partners too.” Alex paused for a moment. “In a way, you’ve already implied that he IS ready.”

“And how’d I do that?” Kara rolled her eyes.

“You started off as his mentor,’ Alex pointed out. “But when you agreed to be partners, it means you can’t be a mentor anymore. It means he’s surpassed the role of protégé and become the next step, partner. By making him your partner, you’ve essentially agreed that he IS ready to be it. Partners need to respect and listen to each other, it’s a two way street, not one person in charge.”

“He’s not exactly innocent there either,” Kara remarked with a pout, not liking being put in place by Alex’s gentle words.

“You’re right, he’s not,” she agreed. “Neither are you at times.” She sighed when she saw Kara moving to defend herself. “Kara. You can’t expect respect from Mon-El when you STILL throw him being a Daxamite in his face.”

“I haven’t done that in a LONG time.” Kara glared at her for saying that.

Alex gave her a pointed look. “You literally said he ran in there like “a thoughtless Daxamite.””

Kara actually winced at that. “I did?”

“Mhmm. I get it, I do. You were raised on a planet that thought Daxamites were hedonists and selfish, and yeah, maybe Mon-El was when he first came to Earth, but he’s adapted remarkably well for someone his age and set in his ways. He’s calmed down a lot and I respect him for trying to learn Earth’s ways and stick to them. But even you can admit, the first few weeks, hell months even, you weren’t exactly patient with him or above calling him a Daxamite as an insult.”

“I know I did, Alex. And I’ve apologized for it.”

“But you KEEP doing it.” Alex gave her a soft look. “When he first got here, you were so angry that he didn’t want to be a hero like you and you blamed it on him being a Daxamite. Not everyone can be a hero though regardless of where they come from, not everyone has what it takes. Did you know Pam from HR tried to be a field agent? She couldn’t handle it but she still wanted to help in her own way so she switched departments. Is she selfish for not putting herself on the field?”

“Of course not!”

“So why was Mon-El any different?” Alex asked. She knew it was a long time ago, but she really felt like this was a thing Kara had yet to process and really reflect on. That was one of the earliest cases of her basically manipulating and guilting Mon-El and, she was sure, if Kara didn’t work past it and realize how she’d come across, her sister would never learn how to push through it and be a better person. “For that matter, how are all the other aliens living on Earth, who have some sort of enhanced ability, any different? I haven’t seen you condemning the aliens at the bar for not stepping up and being heroes too. What made Mon-El so different?”

Kara looked down at that, she knew the answer. But she didn’t want to say it, at least not to Alex. That was something she owed Mon-El.

“Was it because he was from Krypton’s sister planet? That you expected more from him because of you and Clark?” Alex kept prodding.

“No.”

Alex let out a gentle breath, she could see it in Kara’s expression it was one of those times she knew the answer but would not say for any amount of begging or pleading. But at least Kara had an answer.

“You expected him to be a hero,” Alex continued then. “And when he refused, you got angry and used him being a Daxamite against him. Which is a no-no,” she tried to lighten the tension and the fierce crease in her sister’s brow. “Eventually he decides he wants to be a hero and you agree to mentor him…but when he struggles to adapt to how you were training him, you got frustrated.”

“We already talked about that, Alex.” Kara looked up at her sister. “I get it. I shouldn’t have pushed him to be Mike and should have let him find his own path.”

“It goes a little beyond that, Kara. You told me that he told you, in clear words, that he didn’t want to be Mike and that he didn’t want to follow the path you set. And you told him that he either did what you said or had to find another mentor.”

“And I feel awful about it. I shouldn’t have threatened to leave him alone when he was relying on me to help, like I promised him I would.”

Alex was quiet an unusually long time at that.

“What?”

Alex reached out and took Kara’s hand and Kara knew it was not going to be good the next words she spoke.

“You do it a lot.”

“Do what a lot?”

Alex hesitated. “You said Mon-El wanted time to think about being partners, because he was afraid it wouldn’t work between you two.”

“Yeah, and?”

“But he didn’t break up with you?”

“No.”

Alex bit her lip. “There are…some people…at the DEO who…well…talk about you and Mon-El.”

Kara’s brow furrowed. “What do they say?”

“Whenever you lash out at Mon-El, like at CatCo and…other times…he usually goes to Winn for advice. And Winn is usually at the DEO. As much as they try to keep the conversation quiet and private, there ARE cameras and agents everywhere and…”

“Alex,” Kara cut in, “What do they say?”

Alex sighed, squeezing Kara’s hand. “They wonder if you get off on it.”

“If I WHAT?!”

Alex winced, and not from how Kara accidently tightened her grip on her hand a bit too much. “They talk. They’re stupid. And they don’t know the full story or the context of what’s happening. But they overhear things and some of them wonder if you just enjoy toying with Mon-El.”

“I’M the one toying with him?!” she demanded. “HE is the one that lied to me!”

“Kara have you ever had an actual two-way conversation with Mon-El before deciding to break up with him?”

“What?” Kara shook her head, not understanding.

“Have you and Mon-El, whenever he does something that frustrates or upsets you, actually sat down and talked about why? Have you given him time to absorb it and work on changing before you break things off? Change takes time, it doesn’t happen instantly.”

“I don’t understand what that has to do with anything.”

Alex could hear it in Kara’s words, coupled with her already-there knowledge of those situations and how Kara handled it, what the answer was.

“Mon-El frustrates you at CatCo, you threaten to stop mentoring him if he doesn’t become Mike Matthews. Mon-El confesses he likes you, you reject him, he tries to move on and you start being cold and distant to him because you were jealous. Mon-El tries to tell you that Mxzy was dangerous and went to face him himself, you tell him you’re marrying Mxzy. Mon-El lies about being the Prince, you break up with him. You’ve never actually sat down and talked about the things he’s done and given him a chance to fix it BEFORE you break up with him or threaten to. I CAN kind of understand, from their perspective and with the stories they hear, why they think you sort of toy with him.”

Kara was on her feet in an instant, pacing her apartment once more, her frustration returned tenfold. “I was trying to help him fit in as a human with CatCo.”

“And he’d been on earth for all of a week or two at that point. NO ONE, not even you, could adapt that quickly to Earth to fit in.”

Kara ignored her.

“So what if I was a little jealous! I was thrown by how quickly he moved on to Eve.”

“You had no right to be jealous if you told him you wouldn’t be with him,” Alex argued. “And if you did want to be with him, and had a right to be jealous, you should have told him. Otherwise it feels like you were playing hard to get and playing with his feelings. Your words hurt him Kara. You rejected him and then wanted him back the second he showed an interest in another girl.”

Kara didn’t look at Alex for that, she’d already realized how wrong she’d been in how she’d handled that situation.

“I told him I could handle Mxzy, he didn’t listen. He acted like I needed him to defend me, like I couldn’t stand up for myself!”

“What man in their right mind, even on Earth, would stand by when the girl he was with got hit on by another man? Hell, if that happened in a bar to someone else, any man would step up and tell the other man to back off. Regardless of whether the girl could handle it herself. It’s not a custom found JUST on Daxam. You told Mxzy no, he didn’t listen, so Mon-El stepped up to help. Not in the best way, even I can admit that. But you also didn’t listen to him when he tried to tell you how dangerous his kind were.”

“Because he wasn’t that dangerous! I handled it just fine!”

“And, again, you hurt Mon-El to do it when it wasn’t necessary.”

“Mxzy could have been listening!”

“That doesn’t mean you had to say what you said or do what you did to him,” Alex calmly remarked. She felt really weird playing Devil’s Advocate for Mon-El, but Kara was too close to the situation to see how she’d come across and how her actions had affected other people. “You didn’t need to reject him like that. You could have just gone off to face Mxzy and not told him where or when. Winn and I could have distracted him, or sent him on a wild goose chase. He didn’t need to know you’d even left to face Mxzy. What you did, Kara, was needlessly cruel and how you made Mon-El feel was even worse. I, as your sister, do NOT say that lightly or easily.”

Kara seemed to deflate at that. At the time, her plan had seemed like a good one.

But looking back on it, she realized where she’d gone wrong. She had built it all up with the assumption that Mon-El would just forgive her for it after the fact. She’d built it up assuming he’d be ok with her ripping his heart out if it meant Mxzy was dealt with. She’d toyed with his feelings for her and done it with a straight face. She’d made him feel like he wouldn’t be good enough or just enough in general for her and she did NOT have to go that far.

“He still lied about being the prince.” It was a weak final argument even to her Kryptonian ears.

Alex sighed, seeing that Kara was starting to come down from her rage. “I can understand why he would.” She held up her hands quickly when Kara turned a disappointed look at her. “I’m not saying I condone it or agree, but I CAN see why he kept quiet.”

“And why’s that?”

Alex gave her a soft look. “You don’t know, do you?”

“I wouldn’t ask if I did.”

“So you’re proving my point,” Alex pointed out. “You never sat down with him to ask him why he lied before you decided to break up over it.”

“I get it. I’m a horrible girlfriend.”

“I’m not saying that,” Alex argued. “I’m just saying that you can’t put all this blame on Mon-El and not accept that you DO have a hand in the struggles too. Relationships aren’t all just ONE person’s fault. I learned that the hard way.”

And she had. She’d listened to Maggie and believed her one ex was the entire reason for the break up. Only to find out Maggie had cheated on her too and had a hand in it as well. It wasn’t black and white, there were shades of gray and it meant that both parties had to blend together to make a relationship work or fall apart.

Alex paused, making sure Kara was listening, before continuing. “He woke up in essentially a containment facility with a Kryptonian,” she made a small S shape on her chest representing Kara’s Supergirl outfit, “Standing over him after escaping what could have been an attack or the destruction of his planet. And that’s after a 35 year coma. Anyone, especially a human, would be disoriented and react, wanting to get far away from someone he perceives as an enemy.

“And what do we do? We lock him up and accuse him of trying to kill the president. So, right there, he’s never going to tell any of us, strangers, possible enemies, people he doesn’t know or trust, who he really is. Because, rule one of royalty, I’d assume, don’t become a hostage by revealing you’re royalty.”

“He wouldn’t have been a hostage,” Kara argued weakly.

“Did he know that?” Alex gave her a look. “Did we give him any reason to believe we wouldn’t just throw him back in that cell and ransom him off?”

Kara sighed, plopping back onto the couch. “No.”

“Exactly. So he says he’s the guard. And yeah, he didn’t really act like it. I mean, a guard that can’t fight? They’d be a terrible guard. But it’s not like he actually acted like a prince either. He seemed to take pretty good care of himself and do a lot by himself for him to be as pampered as you made the Frat Boy sound. And…”

“You’re getting off topic, Alex.”

“Right.” She shook her head, she really hated tension and having to speak like this to Kara, it was no wonder she’d gone on a tangent just to try and break up the atmosphere in the room. “So time goes by, his planet is gone. IS he still the prince if he has no planet to be prince of?” Alex shrugged at her own question. “Is there a point to reveal he was a prince by that time? And did we really give him a space to feel like he COULD tell us?” she looked at Kara. “One of the first things you said around him after he was out of the cell was how much you hated the prince. If I was dating someone that basically said they hated me, you bet your ass I’d never tell them. Especially if I was alone on the planet and all I had was my girlfriend. After I lost absolutely everything, I’d be terrified to lose her too over that.”

“He wouldn’t have lost me.”

Alex’s look made tears fill Kara’s eyes, because he HAD. She’d done exactly what he’d feared she’d do upon learning the truth.

“I realized that in the Music Meister World,” Kara admitted. “He probably didn’t tell me because he was afraid of my reaction being exactly what it was.”

Alex nodded. “But there’s also a shame in that too, Kara. I don’t know Mon-El as much as you do. But even I’VE heard him talking about the prince like he was someone to be ashamed of, or a selfish coward, or…”

“Someone uninspiring,” Kara murmured, her gut twisting painfully as she thought of every time Mon-El brought up the prince after they’d started getting closer, how he sounded like it was better that the prince was dead. How he sounded like the prince shouldn’t matter or wasn’t worthy of being remembered.

“He’s changed a lot since he’s gotten here,” Alex continued. “And, from what I heard, he sounded ashamed of the prince. And if he WAS the prince. He was ashamed of who he’d been on Daxam. Maggie hasn’t told me a lot about her past, the things she has told me, at first, were complete lies. Because she was ashamed of how things happened and the things she did. Humans do that when they don’t want others to think less of them, especially after making such an effort to be better.”

“No one wants to be remembered for the bad they’ve done,” Kara agreed, thinking back to her time when the Red K was affecting her. She had worked so hard to be better than that, to gain back the trust she’d lost from the people.

“But you see what I’m saying?” Alex tilted her head to try and catch Kara’s eyes. “You can’t get mad at Mon-El for wanting time to think about you two being partners, when you’ve never given him time to explain himself before ending things. It’s not fair to him or to your relationship.”

“I know,” Kara sighed, feeling a terrible weight settle on her at Alex’s words putting everything in perspective.

She hadn’t acted in the best way with Mon-El, she hadn’t set the best example for what a relationship should be. And SHE had been the one setting it. Mon-EL had been following her lead for a majority of their time together. She hadn’t been patient or understanding or willing to bend or talk or compromise with him. It had always been him doing that.

“I need to talk to him,” Kara decided, “I need to apologize and tell him that I’ll listen from now on.”

“I think we all need to do that,” Alex murmured. It was true, he’d had many good points in the past and they’d all disregarded him because he said something they didn’t like or didn’t want to hear. Especially with Jeremiah. “We need to start giving him more credit than we have been.”

This time it was Kara that fell silent for a long while.

“Hey,” Alex reached out to touch her arm again, “What is it?”

Kara glanced at her, fear in her eyes. “You don’t think he’s actually going to call off being partners, do you?”

“No,” Alex said instantly.

Kara frowned, seeing something in her sister’s expression. “What?”

“Nothing. I said nothing.”

“Alex.”

“Kara, really it’s…”

“It’s not nothing. Especially if it involves Mon-El. So tell me what it is.”

Alex slumped slightly, knowing Kara wouldn’t let up till she’d gotten her answer. “I don’t think Mon-El will break up with you. But I don’t think his reasons for staying will be healthy ones.”

“What do you mean?” Kara frowned.

Alex hesitated. “You said his mom hit him?”

Kara had told her more about what the meeting with Rhea had gone like, had even shared what Mon-El disclosed about his time on the ship. Kara had seen a bruise on his face when they’d gotten back to her house, a few hours after the event, and demanded he tell her what happened. Kara had already admitted that he’d been abused as a child, likely more than just physically, she had wanted to know how she should handle it, if she should ask him or let him open up, just needing advice. But she knew enough to know Mon-El had been through a hard time growing up.

“Yeah.”

Alex squeezed Kara’s hand again. “Every time you two nearly broke up, Mon-El would have every right to not want to get back together, just like you’d have every right to want to stay apart if you wanted it. But each time he’s come back. Even when you’ve hurt him, like at the bar or with Mxzy or him being the prince, even when he knows he’s probably going to be hurt again, he KEEPS coming back. Maybe…maybe it’s because that’s all he really knows about actual relationships. If his parents weren’t the greatest, maybe he thinks he deserves this or that this is how it should be?”

Kara was silent. “He’s always been so quick to accept that it was HIS fault, even when it was mine,” she murmured, thinking on the times they broke up in the past. She would blame him for something or tell him he wasn’t enough and he would just…take it, accept it, walk away without another word trying to argue that he was enough or it wasn’t his fault.

Was this what it was like for people who had been abused as children? They just accept it as an adult because that’s all they know?

She felt sick to her stomach thinking on that. She had promised him once, after their powers had swapped, that she would never lay a harmful finger on him again. She hadn’t physically trained with him since then, using captured alien criminals to help him learn. But she hadn’t even thought of how she affected him in other ways, how her words could cut him, her rejections hurt him.

She didn’t mean to do it and she felt so disturbed to realize, everything Alex had been saying was true. She did rush to blame him, she didn’t listen to him, she didn’t show her trust in him, she ignored him or underestimated him, and she was so sure SHE was the right one or the wronged party that she never stopped to let him talk or listen to him or actually have a healthy discussion about things. She demanded he change, but never gave him a chance to show that change before accusing him of doing something relationship ending.

“I really, really need to talk to him,” Kara breathed. “I need to apologize and we need to really talk to each other.”

Alex could only nod and squeeze Kara’s hand, hoping that this would work out. Because Kara and Mon-El had their problems, every couple did, but they were struggling with ways to work through it. This was the first relationship either of them had actually had and while she knew she sounded harsh, bringing up the ways Kara herself hadn’t helped the relationship grow, she felt like she needed Kara to see it wasn’t JUST Mon-El’s fault and to blame him for everything wouldn’t help Kara going forward.

If Kara every ended things permanently with Mon-El, if she kept the same habits and blaming practices with other men, her sister would never find a stable, happy, and healthy relationship and she’d only have herself to blame.

And she could see it, Kara and Mon-El were good for each other. They challenged each other and helped each other grow, to overcome prejudices and faults and work on flaws. And they were happy and adorable and her sister had never smiled more than when she was with Mon-El.

And for that reason alone, she hoped her words got through to Kara and that the two could work this issue out.

She just wanted them happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It might seem like Alex is being a little harsh on Kara, but a big point for that section was that Alex had to make Kara realize how she's acted and reacted in the past, so it focuses a lot more on Kara than Mon-El. We'll see some of Mon-El's thoughts, and Kara's reasons for things, in the next chapter though :-)


	24. Making Up Afterwards (Part 3)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final part in the little 3-part series of chapters :-)
> 
> This chapter is going to contain a lot of my theories about Mon-El, his feelings on being a hero, and, what I felt was, a bit of a plothole with the "return with us to Daxam" thing his parents were on about. So we'll explore a little of what I think his past could have been like and some Karamel relationship healing. Again, it is just my interpretation of things Mon-El has said, referenced, how he's acted, and little cues and what I felt could be a possible tie to them :-)

Kara didn’t even need to use her x-ray vision to know who had come knocking on her door later that night, long after Alex had left. Mon-El had a very distinct knock. So it didn’t surprise her when she opened the door to see him standing there, his shoulders hunched, hands in his pockets.

“Hey,” she greeted softly.

“Hi.” He hesitated a moment, seeming genuinely unsure about something. “Can I come in?”

“Of course.” Kara nodded quickly, stepping aside. “You’re always welcome here.”

“Thanks.” Mon-El tried to smile but it just didn’t seem to work. “I just…I wasn’t sure about that.”

Kara’s heart broke a little more at his words even as he stepped in. He always looked like that after a fight or after she “sent him packing.” It was funny how much she was realizing about him now that she was actually looking at his non-verbal cues. He always seemed hesitant to enter after she sent him away, and it was only hitting her now that it was because he felt like she meant to send him away forever. That he would never be welcome in her home again. Regardless of whether she let him back in hours later, each time it seemed like he never knew if it would be the last time it would happen.

And she didn’t want that. Even if they ever broke up permanently, she wanted him to still view her home as a safe space and a welcome one. She couldn’t imagine ever NOT caring about him, at the very least, and she’d want him to still feel able to visit or come to her if he needed help. 

“Well you will ALWAYS be welcome, I promise.”

“Good. That’s…that’s good.” Mon-El took a deep breath and turned to face her, just standing in the middle of the room. 

“About before…”

“I just wanted to…”

They both tried to speak at once and awkwardly trailed off when they realized that.

“Can I talk first?” Mon-El asked. “I just…I really need to just talk.”

“Of course,” Kara whispered. She could hear it in his voice and see it in how he was holding himself that he really needed to say what he needed to her first.

“I’ve been thinking about it. And I’m sorry I said we couldn’t be partners.”

Kara blinked. That wasn’t what she was expecting.

But, at the same time, Alex’s words came back to her and she felt foolish for ever expecting anything but that. 

Her heart cracked just a little more for it because she knew the next words out of his mouth would be how he could change himself to better suit her desires, how he’d break off pieces of himself to make her happy.

“I don’t ever want to not be your partner. So I was thinking that I might have found a way for me to still be a hero like you wanted without um, stepping on your toes?” He looked to her for the last few words, his expression inquiring if he’d gotten that turn of phrase correct.

She nodded, but didn’t say anything else.

“I was thinking well, humans have “heroes” who do more simple things than face aliens,” he began, looking away from her and around the room. “Maybe I could focus on helping them instead? Like helping firemen and police officers, ambulance people, the um “everyday heroes” so that you have more time and energy to focus on the alien threats? I wouldn’t get in your way as much and maybe we wouldn’t fight so much. I’d still be a hero, just maybe not the same one you wanted me to be and…”

“But you don’t want to be a hero.”

Mon-El stopped speaking to look at her for her words. “I do.”

Kara swallowed hard at how…hollow…he sounded. Like he was just saying the words but there wasn’t really any emotion behind it, no real passion or desire. 

He was placating her. She realized now. He was saying what he thought she wanted to hear, and preparing to do exactly what she wanted him to do, even if it wasn’t something he actually wanted.

“Why did you change your mind?” she asked him gently. “You were adamant about not wanting to be a hero. But then you changed your mind. Why?”

“I thought about how my powers could help people and it would be a waste not to and…”

“You’re paraphrasing me,” Kara pointed out, her voice as soft as she could make it. “Those are the reasons I gave. What were YOUR reasons?”

Mon-El couldn’t answer.

Kara stepped closer, reaching out to take his hand, seeming to shock him with the action because his gaze jumped down to their hands and back to her.

“I never asked you, did I?” She frowned as she considered what she was asking. “Why you DIDN’T want to be a hero. I never let you tell me. I never even asked.”

“I think…” Mon-El paused a moment, before seeming to steel himself. “I think when that happened you just assumed it was because a selfish Daxamite wouldn’t want to help anyone. And I felt…I felt like you wouldn’t listen to me even if I did tell you.”

The last few words came out in a rush, like he didn't want to say it and hurt her but needed to push himself to actually say it. To actually tell her how she’d come across to him so negatively.

“I’m sorry.”

Kara frowned because she hadn’t been the one to say that first, Mon-El had. 

“Don’t be.” She sighed. “You’re right. Even after saying that we should start fresh and that I was wrong to judge you, I still did. And I kept doing it even after you said you wanted to be a hero.” She frowned as a thought struck her. “Did I…was I…”

“What?” Mon-El frowned, not following.

“Was I the reason you said you wanted to be a hero? I mean, you said you wanted to help me keep the world going, but…”

“A little,” Mon-El admitted, but his gaze flickered away.

Despite how their conversation was sounding, he DID still want to help her keep the world spinning, but just...not in the way she probably wanted him to. After having been around her so long, seen how she was in the field and off, and having found some hobbies of his own, he really wouldn't mind helping her by helping to keep HER going. The world spun just fine, Kara was taking care of it, but who was really taking care of Kara? Who made sure she actually ate real food and not just fast food? He'd read that fast food could be bad for you after a while. Who was making sure she rested and recovered after hard battles? She would get so fixated on getting stories done for CatCo between Supergirling that he'd found her asleep at her desk once or twice. Alex did her best, but she had a full-time job of her own, a budding relationship that required time and effort, and her own life to live. He...didn't. He worked at the bar, but his hours lately seemed to be times where Kara was working as well so it worked. He would have no qualms with helping the world by helping KARA keep running. He knew that feeling extended to the field too. It was why he kept having to fight himself not to go after her, or go back for her, or go help her even when the civilians were still somewhat in danger. And he knew, all that did was upset her and make her angry at him for wanting to protect HER while she was protecting everyone else. And that wouldn't help them in the long run either. He honestly didn't think he'd really ever be able to NOT rush back and try to help her or turn around and go to try and save her. Because if SHE got taken down, then the world would stop spinning.

Or at least HIS world would stop spinning.

“But not in a good way,” Kara surmised, pulling him from his thoughts.

His gaze flew back to her, his eyes wide at how close she'd come to voicing how he felt.

“Be honest with me, Mon-El,” she encouraged. “I want us to be partners here,” she gestured between the two of them, “MUCH more than out there,” she gestured to the windows. “And it won’t work if we BOTH aren’t honest with each other. I don’t want a relationship that sugarcoats everything. And I...I actually DON'T want a boyfriend who won’t tell me when I’m being unreasonable. Because you were right, when you talked about Kryptonians and how we can be high and mighty sometimes. You actually observed me and listened to me talk before you said that, while I just went off on you first. I know that I can get too set in my ways, I think...I think a little of it is that, after losing Krypton and going through so many changes to adapt to Earth, I have a set system that I got used to. And I don't like changing it."

"Understandable," Mon-El murmured.

"Understandable, but not excusable," Kara corrected. "I might be the Girl of Steel, but steel CAN bend when it needs to. And a relationship is the biggest area where people NEED to bend. BOTH of us have to be willing to compromise, and I haven't been. So I apologize for that." She offered him a small smile, feeling relieved when he returned it, even if it was just as small. "And I promise I’LL try to listen to you more. I’m not perfect, as hard as that is to admit,” she teased that last part. “But I want to be better for YOU. I want us to work and that’s going to include having to hear some hard truths about each other. So just tell me the honest truth.”

Mon-El absorbed what she was saying, taking a long while to do it, seeming to study her face to gauge if she was being truthful about wanting to hear the harder truths. Something in her eyes must have reassured him because he finally spoke.

“I felt guilty,” he began. “When you kept going on about how I was wasting my powers and how I wasn’t being a good person for not wanting to help other people. I felt…I felt worthless. I felt like I’d disappointed you. I really hate disappointing people, I always have, ever since…” he cut himself off and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath, knowing he had to say it for this to work, honesty. Complete honesty. “Ever since I was a kid, my parents would get so…disappointed in me when I didn’t live up to their expectations and if you think it's bad having JUST your parents disappointment to face, try having them be your King and Queen too. Their disappointment spreads to the court and then to the other noble houses and before you know it, you've disappointed everyone. It just…I don’t like being a disappointment. I’d gotten enough of that on Daxam and I had…I had really nothing else to lose on Earth. I thought, maybe at least one person wouldn’t be disappointed in me if I was a hero instead.”

“I’m sorry,” Kara apologized genuinely. “It wasn’t my place to do that. And I’m so sorry I made you feel that badly. I had no right to do it or to say anything that I said you over just not wanting to be a hero.”

“Thank you.”

It wasn’t forgiveness. But she wasn’t expecting it. Now wasn’t the time for that, now was the time to air out their issues and work on being better in the future.

“Now I know why you wanted to be a hero,” Kara murmured, squeezing his hand, feeling like the next question would be harder for him to say. “But why DIDN’T you want to be one?”

“Honestly?”

“Honestly. I’m listening.”

“A lot of reasons.” He let out such a long breath of air that it felt like he must have been releasing all the reasons he’d kept inside as well, that he could finally tell her ALL of them instead of have her think he was just some selfish jerk.

“Take as long as you need.”

He let out a weak laugh. “We may want to sit down, it’ll take a while.”

Kara merely nodded and led him to her couch, settling the two down on it and turning her attention to him fully, determined to actually HEAR him this time.

“I don’t know where to begin.”

“Anywhere,” she encouraged, reaching out like Alex had done and resting a hand on his arm, squeezing it in comfort. “No more judging from me. I promise.”

Mon-El swallowed hard. “On Daxam…” he began slowly, knowing how she typically would just shout "you're not on Daxam!" when he would start that way. But she kept silent, seeming to actually be LISTENING to him this time. “No one cared enough to help me if I struggled. And…I had to learn to do a lot on my own, I had to learn how to save myself and handle myself. No one was looking out for me. No one was trying to protect me from...anyone." His parents. "It makes it…it makes it harder to care about other people when no one cared about you.”

He fell silent at that and looked down.

Kara could only squeeze his arm once more. “Keep going.”

Mon-El squeezed his eyes shut. “Humans aren’t my people. I don't have this profound connection to them like you do. I didn't grow up among them, I don't know them, their history, their struggles like you do. I look at them and I don't feel this need to interfere in their world. I just...I don't feel like one of them. You've had time to adapt to living like them, thinking like them, acting like them. Every little thing I do reminds me I'm not one of them. It may sound really terrible, but they're not my people to protect. And...and I feel like I shouldn't have to feel obligated to. I should WANT to protect them, if I were a hero, not...not because I felt guilted into it. Because...because my heart just wouldn't be in it the way it should. Does that make sense?" He looked at her.

Kara nodded though she kept quiet, absorbing his words. It did make sense. It reminded her of when she'd gone to college. Coming from a family of scientists, she'd felt obligated to take up that profession and had gone into that major. And she'd tried to love it, she'd tried to feel passionate about it. But her heart wasn't in it. It didn't interest her, it didn't speak to her, but she'd been so scared of telling the Danvers that being a scientist wasn't for her. It wasn't till Eliza had asked about her grades once during a holiday that she'd burst into tears because she was failing all of her scientific-related courses. She could relate to Mon-El's feelings of being a disappointment to her parents too. But Eliza had taken her aside and explained that she didn't expect Kara to be just like them, she was her own person with her own interests and they would still love her just the same if she chose theology over science or anything. They sat down and looked at her grades and classes and realized she was excelling in english-based courses. It had set her on her course to being a journalist, because she chose to follow her heart instead of what she thought she had to do. 

This was Mon-El's version of it. And she understood. If his heart just wasn't in it as fully as it should be, little things would slip through the cracks. A person might get hurt. Or HE might get hurt because he felt like he HAD to to be seen as a hero. He'd be miserable doing something that wasn't for him. And she was kicking herself for not having thought to ask him sooner WHY he didn't want to be a hero. Passion and having your heart in it, having a desire for it, was key. It took a very specific sort of person to be a fireman, to run into burning buildings to save other people and control a dangerous situation. The same for a police officer or an EMT, to have other people's lives in your hands. Not everyone could do it.

Mon-El cleared his throat, getting his thoughts back on track. "Humans, to me, they don’t really seem to NEED much help. Sure, they may need protecting from an alien threat here or there, but from what I saw, they already had Supergirl and the Martian Manhunter and the DEO and even Guardian AND their every day heroes. They were already protected, why would it matter if I helped or not. And I didn’t…I didn’t WANT to help them because…because they weren’t Daxamites.

“I tried,” his voice actually broke at the word, pulling her attention more to him, “On Daxam. I tried to help the people I could, but I couldn’t do much. Not while my parents were still ruling. And if I even DARED speak out against them?” he let out a scoffing breath full of such pain Kara's heart clenched at the sound. “I had a tutor once who merely said "a kingdom built on slavery would never last." He disappeared overnight. It wasn’t till a week later that I saw his head on a pike as an example of what would happen to others who “challenge the crown.” My parents already had no issues beating me, imagine what they’d do if I spoke out like that?”

“Nothing good,” Kara could surmise. 

“And nothing I did could change anything, not till I was king. I was on a planet, where I couldn’t do anything to help the people I saw suffering. I told you I didn’t agree with slavery. I never did. But I had to be careful how I displayed that. The court were all set in their ways, the entire planet was like that for generations. Not many people thought to change it, certainly not the nobles. And if I showed how I felt too obviously BEFORE I was king, I wouldn't put it past any of my "cousins" or "uncles" or anyone else in line for the throne to have me killed. Or the court to decide I was incompetent or try to prevent me from taking the crown. They wouldn't want the system to change and I couldn't do anything to make them think I'd change it once I was king. My father wasn’t lying when he brought up the servants and how I treated them. I never took slaves, just standard servants. And I tried to treat them as well as I could. I did as much for myself as possible to make their lives easier.”

Well, Kara thought, that did explain how he’d adapted so well to doing things for himself on Earth.

“But I couldn’t really do anything more to help them. And then Daxam was destroyed and I was on Earth, and I’d still failed to save them or help them or…”

“Hey,” Kara squeezed his arm once more, moving closer to put her other hand on his shoulder, hearing how upset he was getting. “I get it. I do. I couldn’t save my people either. It’s…it’s one of the reasons why I wanted to be a hero and help the humans.”

There was a question in her tone, even if she didn’t outright ask it. Mon-El could still hear it. If they both experienced the same thing, the failure to help their people, why did SHE want to help the humans, but he didn’t?

“I’m afraid to fail again,” Mon-El admitted. “I’m afraid to fail and just be a disappointment once more, to fail and have them hate me. I was judged for every little thing I did on Daxam. Being the prince meant I was always in the Spotlime.”

“Spotlight,” she corrected quietly.

“I was always at the center of gossip or judged by the court. Even off world I was just “The Frat Boy of the Universe” and I really don’t want to go back to that, Kara.” He looked at her now, his eyes pleading with her to understand. “I don’t want to keep being judged for every little thing I do. And if I were a hero, that’s all that would happen. They would judge my outfit, my abilities, my skills, my effort, my failings especially. Is it really so wrong that I just don’t want to endure that again?”

He looked away, not giving her time to answer. “My entire life on Daxam was watched and controlled. People were interested in me just because I was the prince, not because I was Mon-El. Do you know how many men and women vied for a spot in my bed? Not even to reciprocate pleasure, but to use me and say they’d been with the prince? I always took care of them, as was my duty, but they never really extended the same to me. I was like a tool to be used, by them, by my parents, by the court. Everyone was trying to make me into something I didn’t want to be.

“And then I get to Earth,” he let out a breath and sank back against the couch. “I get here and…and everything was gone. And it was terrible to wake up and have no idea what happened to my planet, to my people. Honestly, I couldn’t have cared less if my parents survived, but my people? The “lower classes” who would have just been abandoned? I needed to know if THEY were ok, and my planet was just…gone. It was awful and the only truly good thing that came from it was…freedom. I was finally free to just be ME. I didn’t have parents controlling my life, I didn’t have people using me for fun, or the court judging all my mistakes. My life was finally MINE.”

“Until I tried to force you into one you didn’t want,” Kara realized. 

She’d never given it much thought, what it was actually like for Mon-El to be the prince. She’d never once considered there could be a pressure to it. She’d never once asked him WHY he drank and partied so much. She’d just assumed it was because of Daxam. She was realizing now she still had so much to learn about her boyfriend.

“Yes.” It was a harsh thing to say, but it had to be said. Honesty from now on. “I lost everything and I wanted to find my own way. I didn’t want to be a hero. I didn’t want to be judged by the public, or a tool used by the DEO, or not be in control of what I do with my life.”

“I’m sorry.”

Mon-El just shook his head a little. “I liked working at the bar,” he told her. “I could still help people, but in my own way. I listened to their problems, offered them an ear, a drink to make them happy. I was working and doing something with my life. It might not have been on the level of saving the world from a horde of aliens, but it was something I was working hard at and enjoying working on. It was a peaceful place, excusing the occasional bar fight. And I felt safe there. I liked it there. I don’t…I don’t like fighting. I’ve gone through enough fights, of all kinds, in my life that I just…I don’t want to fight anymore. I just wanted to have peace. I felt happy, and it just…I didn’t understand why it wasn’t enough for others. Why did I still have to be a hero?”

“You don’t have to be one, Mon-El,” Kara leaned closer and put her arms around him, hugging him tight. “I am very glad you were honest with me about how you’re feeling. I never should have pressured you, at being Mike or being a hero. That wasn’t my call to make in how you live YOUR life. I just…”

This time Kara fell silent. 

Mon-El gathered himself, preparing himself for what she might say next and whether it would be something he would dread to hear.

“You just?”

Kara bit her lip.

Mon-El leaned way to look at her, lifting a hand to touch her cheek. “Honesty.”

“Alex came over earlier to calm me down and she said…quite a few things that made me think about you and about us, about how I treated you.”

“It wasn’t your fault, I…”

“No,” she cut in, pointing a warning finger at him. “You are not allowed to take ALL the blame. I have said and done things that were mean, angry, and cruel and I’m not letting you take that away from me to make me feel better. If I do something bad, I need to own it and learn from it. Some of the fights we had, I DID do some things wrong during them and I HURT you, and that is MY cross to bear, not yours. Let me have this.”

Mon-El nodded, seeming actually surprised she was willing to shoulder some of the guilt.

She had to wonder how many times he’d gotten into a fight or an argument in the past and taken ALL the blame for it, how many fights did his mind just automatically think it was HIS fault.

“I pushed you to be a hero,” Kara began. “More than I pushed anyone else. Alex pointed out that there ARE other aliens on earth that have enhanced abilities, but I never went after them or pushed them to be heroes, I never condemned them for not being heroes like I did with you.”

“That…seems like a fair assessment?” Mon-El gave her a confused look, not sure what that had to do with it.

“I didn’t realize it then, I really didn’t notice,” Kara defended, but not in a smug or arrogant way, but more explanatory. “And if Eve was any indication, I’d been forcing myself not to see it for a while. I should have though. Looking back on it, it’s so obvious to me now. And I really didn’t go about it in the best way. I should have been HONEST with you too and…”

“Kara, hey, hey.” Mon-El stroked her cheek again, drawing her attention to him. “As adorable as you rambling is, I’m really lost.”

Kara let out a soft sigh, organizing her thoughts. “I…liked you.”

Mon-El frowned deeply at that. “I’m pretty sure you hated me.”

“I didn’t.”

“You told me I should have died with my planet.”

“What?!” Kara seemed completely startled at that remark, her gut twisting at how…harsh that sounded. Being where she and Mon-El were now, with how she felt about him, imagining EVER having said that to him agonized her.

He nodded. “When you came after me and called me a Daxamite. I was surprised that you knew where I was from. You said, “Yes, and you should have stayed there.” And it didn’t seem like anything big at the time, but when you told me later that Daxam was basically a wasteland and all my people were dead…”

“Oh my god,” Kara nearly gagged at the thought, feeling completely sick to her stomach. She HAD said that! She hadn’t even realized at the time what the implication was. But she HAD known Daxam was nearly obliterated, that no one had survived (or so she thought at the time), and to say he should have stayed on his planet during its destruction was really equal to saying she wished he was dead. “I am SO sorry. Mon-El I don’t, I don’t wish that, at all, never on anyone. I…”

“Hey,” Mon-El cut in gently. “You’re forgiven.”

The irony that he forgave her for wishing he was dead while he hadn’t for being hard on him not wanting to be a hero wasn’t lost on her. 

She needed to change the direction of the conversation soon before she started crying.

“I was too hard on you to be a hero for there not to be another reason behind it than just your powers,” she got them back on track. Mon-El, thankfully, said nothing about the switch back. “I think, I mean…looking back on it, on how I acted…I feel like…I just…”

“No judging,” Mon-El mimicked her earlier words, trying to reassure her to just say it.

“I wanted to spend time with you,” Kara finally got out. “I wanted to be around you.”

Mon-El blinked, “Really?”

“I know it doesn’t seem that way. I went about it in the completely wrong way. It’s like…there’s this thing on Earth where people say little boys will pick on girls when they like them. Because they want the attention but don’t want to be seen as “girly” for liking them. It’s…it’s sort of like that.”

“So…you were “mean” to me because you liked me?” Despite how crazy that sounded, Mon-El couldn’t help the small smile that grew on his face at that.

Kara blushed deeply. “I kept watching you when you were in the coma at the DEO,” she sounded like she was ticking off a list of things. “I kept following you where you went on Earth. I kept going after you, specifically, for hero training, where I was the one training you. I could have easily just let the DEO handle your integration to Earth, they have a whole department that does that for new aliens. But…I didn’t. I was the one that kept going to you and seeking you out and…and demanding you do things that…that let you spend time with me.”

“Training.”

“Yeah.”

“CatCo.”

“Uh huh.” She winced at that one. She could have gotten him a job anywhere, hell even working AT the DEO, but she’d taken him to HER work, where SHE was there and constantly checking in on him. She’d said it was her responsibility while he was there, but he really wasn’t. The company got a lot of new interns that messed things up more than Mike Matthews could have, but she kept going back to him.

“The bar!”

Kara let out an embarrassed groan at that. She HAD been going to the bar a lot more often now that Mon-El was working there.

Mon-El, however, smiled as that did answer one of his earlier questions. He had been working at the bar, so why wasn't it enough and why did he still have to be a hero? Well, if he was working at the bar, that was apparently less time Kara could spend with him, so it made sense, hearing it now, that she insisted he still be a hero, if she thought that would be a way to spend time with him.

“You invited me to family dinners…”

“Can you stop now?” she half-begged, that was going quite a bit farther than just having him be her protégé, to invite him to different family gatherings as though he were closer to her than just that.

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” Mon-El looked at her.

“I don’t think I actually realized what I was doing,” she admitted, sheepish. “I didn’t want to like you. I didn’t think I could have a relationship and a career and be Supergirl so I never considered YOU. It snuck up on me without me realizing and when it finally came to a head, with Eve and all that, I just…Alex made me realize I’d made you a part of my life too quickly and too easily for me to have not wanted that on some level.”

Mon-El felt his smile widen just a little more. “You liked me all that time.”

“On some level,” Kara agreed. “Even when I felt like I hated you and when you irritated me, there was just something that kept me coming back to you. I really didn't need to have anything else to do with you after we cleared you of killing the president, but I did. Because somewhere in me, I WANTED to.”

“I liked you too,” he offered. “Pretty much from the moment you threw me on my ass. I always liked strong women. Especially blondes.”

Kara laughed at how he waggled his eyebrows at her and smacked him lightly on the shoulder. “Stop, we’re supposed to be having a serious conversation.”

“Right.” He nodded, his face growing mockingly serious, but there was a lightness in his eyes once more that told her this talk was really helping. “Right. Yes.”

Kara fell silent for a moment, thinking about how to broach the next topic, before deciding just to go for it. “Alex also brought up that I’m guilty of doing somethings to you that I’ve given you hell for doing to me.”

The confusion on Mon-El’s face made her sad. He really couldn’t see how she’d been a player in their issues as well. She was really going to have to work on his self-esteem. Despite all his bravado and charm, he really didn’t seem to think he was worth anything.

“I keep telling you to listen to me, but I don’t do the same for you. You tried to tell me about Jeremiah, about Rhea, about other things too, and I ignored you and that was wrong. So I’m promising you, I’m going to listen from now on. And that means if we have a fight or if we discover something bad about one of our pasts. We’ll sit down and TALK about it first. No more breaking up without talking and TRYING to work on it first. No more me threatening to end things if you don’t conform to the ridiculous mold I try to set for you. Because I don’t want a mold. I just want Mon-El,” she smiled at him.

The way Mon-El seemed to sag in relief nearly shattered her heart. She hadn't realized, she really hadn't, how badly her threats had affected him. It literally looked like a weight had been lifted off him, like he had one less large worry to fret about.

"And that goes for if any more fourth dimensional beings pop into my apartment," Kara added. "What I did to you, what I said, when Mxzy was around was unspeakably cruel."

"He could have been listening..."

Kara shook her head at how he was repeating her own arguments back at her. It sounded so stupid now, the reasons she'd used. "I went too far," she stated firmly, leaving him no room to argue or try to make her feel better about how she'd clearly hurt him. "Alex pointed out I didn't need to say any of that to you. I could have just up and left and you wouldn't have been able to find me if you didn't know where I'd gone. But I CHOSE to say that to you. I chose to do it even when it hurt you. It wasn't necessary, and it wasn't right, and you didn't deserve that. I am so sorry. I'm so sorry if what I said made you feel like you weren't enough for me, because you are. You are more than enough, as my boyfriend and as my partner."

Mon-El's smile was watery now, tears in his eyes. But unlike the tears that had gathered during the time with Mxzy or when she'd learned he was the prince, she could see they were happy, relieved tears. She certainly had a lot to make up for when it came to how she treated him and how she'd made him feel about his self-worth. She was only too happy to do it, and this was a good place to start.

“And, speaking of partners, if you have a plan, like with Leslie, I’ll listen to it first and REALLY consider it and…”

“Being honest?” Mon-El cut in with a small grimace, clearing his throat of the tears choking it. “I…I really don’t think I can be a hero, Kara. I mean, if you need me, if there’s an alien horde out there, if there's an enemy that Supergirl can't face by herself or with the DEO's help, I’ll be at your side in an instant to help." He honestly wasn't sure how often that would be though. Supergirl and the DEO had handled SO many threats before he came along, it made him question if he was even needed given how excellent the teamwork between Supergirl and the organization had been. "But…I really don’t know if I have what it takes to be one.”

Kara bit her lip as she listened to him. She wanted to argue that he DID, tell him how much he’d grown, how much better his skills were despite what she’d shouted at him only hours ago. But, again, it was HIS life and HIS decision if he wanted to be a hero or not.

“Compromise?” she offered and he nodded for her to go on. “Give it one more week? Let me show you what it’s like with me REALLY being your PARTNER out there. Let’s see if we can make it work as superhero partners and if you still think you’d like to turn in your cape, I won’t stop you. We can fold it up together and give it to Winn to wear to work.”

And maybe she needed that week as well. She had come to terms with why she had held Mon-El back so much. She needed to know if SHE could handle him being out on the field too. Because, right now, she really, in her heart, wanted him to be as far from the action as possible. And it had nothing to do with all the reasons he'd given. But she felt like she owed it to him to actually BE his partner first, regardless of how she felt. She owed it to the two of them to see how it COULD work between them, before they both decided what to do next.

“He’d love that,” Mon-El had to laugh. He considered her words, before holding out a hand to her. “One more week.”

“Thank you.”

He nodded with a shrug. “I could never say no to you.”

Kara’s small smile started to fall at that. “You CAN, you know.” She needed him to realize this. “If I say something or do something that upsets you. TELL me. If I ask you, or...order you to do something that you aren’t comfortable with, you CAN say no. I don’t want you to just do everything I tell you to. I want us to be partners off the field too.”

“Ok.”

“And if you don’t want to be a hero after that week, I won’t say another word about it,” she added. “I um…I actually need to apologize to you too.”

“Wow, that's like 10 apologies in an hour?” Mon-El put a hand on his heart, a teasing tone in his voice. “I don’t think I can take it!”

“Shut up,” she laughed, hitting him on the shoulder lightly again. “I really DO want to say I’m sorry for what happened with Leslie. I shouldn’t have gotten so fixated on her and pushed you to the side like that. You sounded like you had a plan and I didn’t even give you a chance to say it.”

“You’re forgiven.”

“There was more to that than making it seem like I thought you weren't ready to face Leslie,” Kara admitted. “I just…” her gaze dropped to his chest, where her hand had absently gone, her thumb stroking over where his scar was. “Every time we’ve been out there since you nearly…” she cut herself off, not even wanting to say it. “I just keep reliving that.” Her thumb tapped on the scar. “I keep seeing you on the ground and bleeding and in the infirmary with those bandages turning red and…”

“Hey,” Mon-El whispered, placing a hand on hers on his chest. “I AM fine now.”

“I know,” her gaze flickered up to his. “But it doesn’t stop me from worrying. I took you out on a mission, as my partner, as a superhero, and because I turned my back for one second, you got shot and I…I nearly lost you. I don’t…I don’t EVER want to feel that again.” Tears filled her eyes as her voice broke at the memory. “I feel like, if you’re the one taking the civilians to safety, then that means you’re somewhere safe too, where the enemy can’t hurt you again.”

“Kara, you should have told me you felt that way.”

“I know,” her voice sounded watery as a tear fell from her eye. “I know but…I’m Supergirl, the Girl of Steel. I shouldn’t be so affected by something that IS a hazard of the job and…”

“You may be Supergirl, but you’re also KARA,” Mon-El pointed out. “It’s ok to feel that fear and to not want to lose the people you care about. If I’d known you felt that way Kara, I would have adapted my plan so that we both faced Leslie or something. I wouldn’t have fought you so hard if I knew it was because you were scared to lose me and not because you didn’t think I was good enough.”

“You are,” Kara told him. “You ARE good enough. I wouldn’t have taken you on as my partner if you weren’t.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

"And that's a little bit of why I wanted to ask you for another week," Kara continued. "I need to know if I CAN let you face an enemy like that. I need to know if I can stand there and not try to hold you back. Because I don't want to be something that holds you back from anything. I need to know if I can handle having you being in the line of fire with me too."

"Understandable," Mon-El nodded, squeezing her hand. "We'll give it that week."

Kara smiled at that, before a thought struck her. “What WAS your plan? I just…now that Leslie’s sort of been dealt with for the moment and we’re both a lot calmer. What was it?”

“This.” Mon-El reached into his pocket and pulled something out, placing it in Kara’s outstretched hand.

“A…battery?” She stared at it in confusion.

“Actually,” Mon-El let out a light laugh and turned it on its side to reveal two small lights on the side of it, one red and one green, the green one was on representing it was charged. “This is Leslie.”

“What?” Kara gaped at him and then quickly looked at the battery much closer. “You’re not serious…”

“I am.” He pointed at it. “Winn was complaining once that the batteries in his remote were dead and explained what they are. I found this rechargeable battery and I thought, if Leslie is electricity, that means power, which might mean energy and charges and…things.” He shrugged, not quite fully understanding how different electricities worked on Earth, but going with it. “I thought why not at least TRY and…it worked. I just had to grab her before she turned into electricity and press the battery to her and…pesto!”

“Presto,” Kara corrected absently, staring at the battery that might actually contain one of her sworn enemies locked inside.

Damn it.

His plan was genius.

And she felt so stupid for not even hearing him out.

But, then again, with how angry she’d been at the time, she probably would have called his plan anything but genius and maybe gone so far as to crush the battery.

“Wow.” She shook her head, leaning forward to place it on her coffee table. “I never would have thought of that.” She looked at him again. “I’m really glad you came back for me.”

“Hmm,” he let out a little thoughtful hum.

“What?”

“Nothing just…” He shook his head trying to find the words. “I just was thinking about how you got so mad at me for wanting to come back and face Livewire with you, but you did the same thing when you came back for me when my mother attacked you.”

“I know, I can be a little hypocritical sometimes.”

“No it’s just…I think you need to work on understanding that, how you feel in wanting to protect me, is exactly how I’ve always felt about wanting to protect YOU. So when you run into a situation without a plan, it makes me nervous and it makes me feel on edge. I don’t want to lose you anymore than you want to lose me. So please.” He squeezed her hand. “Please try to be less overconfident and more careful and thoughtful in the future.”

“I will, I promise. After all, me not listening and rushing into things without a plan is what landed you on the ship to Daxam.” She was silent a moment, thinking about that painful time where she’d nearly lost him to space. “I never asked but…were you angry with me over that?”

“I was more angry with my mother for hurting you than…”

“No, I mean,” she paused, the full weight of what that trip could have meant hitting her. “You said before that you really cared about the servants and the lower classes on Daxam, that you wanted to change things. You were heading back there and you told me that you planned to do just that, if we had ended up separated permanently. Did I just stop you from abolishing slavery?”

The thought that her…well…selfish…desire to keep Mon-El with her might have condemned an entire planet to continued slavery was making her nauseous.

“No.”

“How do you know?” Kara demanded, getting upset. “Your mother was planning to take you back to Daxam and…”

“I don’t doubt she was planning to return to Daxam, but I don’t believe for a second it was like she said.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

Mon-El rubbed the side of his face, not sure he really wanted to tell her what he had worked out about his parents and their likely history the last few decades. It was a painful thought, especially being their son, as it proved how little they actually ever loved him, but...honesty. They needed this. No more lies, half-truths, or hidden secrets.

“I’d been on Earth a few months, right? My parents said that the beacon led them to Earth. I know my parents. They wouldn’t have wasted their resources spending more than a few weeks looking for my pod, forget about 30 something years.”

“You mean they weren’t looking for you?” Kara’s heart broke at the thought of any parent just...stopping a search for their child. She knew reports on Earth that were still open that were fifty years and older.

“Not for 30 years. Maybe they started or resumed after I sent the beacon, or only started after the beacon, but they were NOT just drifting through space searching for me. I’m not worth that.”

“Maybe not to THEM,” Kara pointed out, giving him a firm look that made him smile at the implication she’d spend thirty years searching for him if she had to.

“And, it takes 4 years to get to Daxam from Earth,” Mon-El continued with his reasoning. “They wouldn’t have made it to Earth so quickly, in those few months, if they were travelling from Daxam. They would have HAD to be much closer than that.”

“What are you saying?” Kara frowned.

“Daxam might be a wasteland, or it might have recovered. But whatever happened to it, the people there are NOT being ruled by my parents anymore. I wouldn’t be surprised if my parents abandoned it as "too much work" to recover the planet and found a different one to reside on. They probably left the…the others, the slaves and lower class to die. Those who survived would be free now, and if the planet recovered enough for my parents to be willing to go back to it and want to rule it again, then it’s not a wasteland anymore.”

“But why wouldn’t they have just gone back once they saw it was recovered?”

Mon-El shrugged. “I can guess but…”

“What’s your best guess then?”

“They were too fixated on getting ME back. They had decades where they could have had another heir to rule after them, but they came after ME. Which tells me they needed me for something. If the others managed to salvage the planet and finally had that taste of freedom from my parents, they wouldn’t let the "king and queen" and their "masters" back. They’d have rallied and my parents, they’d really be powerless to force themselves back as the rulers. They would have had to flee the planet with barely anything, there was just no time.”

“Why did they want YOU so badly?”

“I was kind to the servants. I didn’t agree with slavery. The people, the lower classes, maybe they thought, once I was king, things would be better for them. And they would have been. Maybe not as good as they’d be had the man I am now been King then, but still better than they were. I think my parents needed me to win the people over.”

“I really was so wrong about you,” Kara remarked softly as she gazed at him. 

Mon-El looked at her, unable to not smile when she looked at him like he was someone amazing and worth being proud of. “That really means a lot to me.”

And it did. Because he knew what she thought of him at first, especially of him as the prince. So to hear her say that she was wrong about him, meant she didn’t view him like that anymore. It made him feel like, maybe, one day, he’d feel like he finally deserved someone like her in his life.

Kara observed him a moment longer. “Are we ok?”

“I think so,” he nodded. “We just…we need to be honest and listen to each other, BOTH of us.”

Kara agreed readily, before a small coy smile formed on her face. “You know, there’s a thing on Earth that humans do after they have a big fight.”

“Is it flowers?” Mon-El asked, serious. “Because I have money now, from the bar, I can go buy you some if…”

Kara just leaned in and pressed her lips to his, stopping him gently. She pulled back, feeling a little smug for how dazed he seemed to be, and leaned in again to whisper exactly how humans “made up” after a fight.

Kara’s laughter as Mon-El scooped her into his arms and supersped them to the bedroom could be heard through the entire building.

(And Kara was very, very thankful Alex seemed to have NOT gotten any pictures this time.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeah, a lot going on here! And a kind of long note to follow about my thoughts:
> 
> I felt like Mon-El had to have more reasons to not want to be a hero than just him being "a Daxamite" like Supergirl thought, so thinking on his life as a prince and how he reacts when he's disappointed someone, I went off that. Mon-El seemed like a decent person deep down and not some horrible dictator, even when we first see him so I felt like there had to be more to him while he was on Daxam too. 
> 
> I saw a few posts and theories on tumblr about whether Rhea and Lar were actually looking for Mon-El, why they were so set on not leaving without him, how they didn't seem like the warm and fuzzy people that would dedicate thirty years worth of resources to finding their wayward son (and so there HAD to be another reason behind it). HOW did they even get to Earth in less than a year when Daxam, where they should have been stationed and ruling if they actually WERE able to rule there, would take 4 years to travel. So why WEREN'T they ruling Daxam? And even some theories about how Mon-El adapted as quickly as he did to doing things for himself on Earth. He took to working at the bar with pride SO fast and, besides the incident at CatCo, he never seemed to just expect people to do things for him like the "fratboy prince" would have. So maybe there was more to him than just that.
> 
> The part where Kara admits that she might have had some feelings for Mon-El even as early as his first few days on Earth are just speculation on my part. She DID seem WAY too obsessed with how HE was adapting to Earth compared to other aliens, so WHY? Why was she always in HIS business and so focused on helping HIM? I feel like it had to be MORE than just guilt over Krypton destroying Daxam, considering she never brought it up again. She kept finding ways to integrate him into HER life, not just help him find his own life on Earth so I wanted to explore that. Maybe it's like the "boys being mean" thing to girls they like? It's possible and that's what's great about fanfiction, exploring that :-)
> 
> (But who else realized Kara essentially told Mon-El he should have died on his planet during that scene? Because that broke my heart when I wrote it in and was like "OMG she totally DID!" :'-( I like that she's grown past her prejudice though.)
> 
> Overall, I feel like Mon-El feels a ton of guilt for how he couldn't change anything on his planet and how he couldn't save it. But, at the same time, I wanted to explore what it might have been like to feel the way he did but grow up on a planet where his mother would stab her own husband for even considering changing the system. I feel like Mon-El would learn early on NOT to speak his real thoughts about it. I also wanted to explore why they were SO keen to take Mon-El back instead of just reinstate themselves as rulers, which would be easy. Maybe the people made it harder and maybe they needed him to win the people.
> 
> Also, the battery and Leslie. No idea if it would actually work, but I just liked the idea of Mon-El capturing someone that's alluded Kara for so long with the most simple of devices ;-)


	25. Gazing into Each Others' Eyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place a little after the Red K chapter ;-)

Mon-El had been dead to the world, he was sure of it. He’d always been a deep sleeper, especially on Daxam, something that had carried over onto Earth what with the destruction he’d witnessed as he escaped. It was more a habit, a bad habit that he’d developed as a child that had just gotten worse and he’d never really been able to get over it. To say his childhood had been hard would be an understatement, despite him being a prince. He often had trouble falling asleep, seeking pleasure with other people to tire himself out enough to rest. Or working himself to exhaustion in other ways, whether it be some sort of fitness or just not sleeping for days on end till he collapsed. Or he’d drink himself into a stupor. After he escaped to Earth, the nightmares that were the cause of him not wanting to sleep on Daxam got worse. He’d learned as a child that the only way he could sleep without fear of nightmares was to sleep deeply, to be so utterly spent that his mind shut off completely.

He was honestly surprised that he managed to wake up whenever Kara seemed to need him. She could burst into the room shouting or just put a light hand on his skin and he’d be awake instantly for her. She just had a talent for that.

That night, it was the franticness in her voice and the near panicked way she was shaking him that had woken him.

He instantly knew something was wrong and jolted awake, sitting right up on the bed with a startled gasp. He quickly turned on the bed, about to ask Kara what was wrong, only for her to throw herself into his arms with such force he nearly fell off the bed. Now he knew something devastating had to have happened. She was crying in his arms, shaking, and not seeming to realize how hard she was gripping him. That wasn’t like her at all.

“Hey, hey, hey,” he murmured, carding his fingers through her hair to help sooth her, rocking her ever so slightly to comfort her. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

His voice seemed to draw her out of wherever her mind had gone, for she pulled away as quickly as she had thrown herself at him, her hands coming up to cage his face, resting on his cheeks with a little more pressure than she normally would.

Her eyes searched his with a desperation, flickering back and forth, not looking at the rest of him or any other part of his face but his eyes.

“You’re ok,” she breathed, her voice shaking as tears clogged it.

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine,” he reassured her, reaching up to stroke her cheek. “Kara what is it?”

She shook her head now, though the movement was short and jerky, as though she didn’t want to move too much and flick her eyes away from his.

“Hey, tell me what’s wrong?” he repeated. “A nightmare?” he guessed, recognizing some of her reactions from his own when he’d wake up from a disturbing dream.

“Yeah,” Kara whispered, only Mon-El’s superhearing allowing him to actually hear her.

“Tell me?”

Kara shook her head, clearly not wanting to.

Mon-El sighed, understanding, and moved to turn, intending to switch the bedside lamp on. But he couldn’t even get far enough in the motion to move 90 degrees before Kara’s grip on his face tightened and forced him to turn back to her.

“Don’t!” she cried, desperate.

Mon-El frowned. “Don’t what?”

“Don’t…don’t look away,” Kara murmured, her gaze locked on his. “Please?”

He reached up to lightly grip one of her wrists, his thumb stroking her pulse point but not forcing her to let go. “Ok,” he agreed. “I won’t.” He tried to lighten the tension just a little with a calm smile. “As though I need a reason to gaze into your gorgeous comets.”

It worked, if just a bit, in how Kara’s lips quirked at the sides. “Thanks.”

Mon-El remained silent, not asking her what she’d dreamed again, but not looking away from her. The two of them sat in silence for a long while. When Mon-El could feel Kara’s grip lessen slightly, he reached up with his free hand to take one of hers, lightly leading it to rest on his chest, over his heart. It was an anchor, to remind her even more that he was still there and alive. Clearly her nightmare had involved something about him not being ok, so she needed to be reminded he was fine in the real world too.

“You bled out.” 

Mon-El would have jumped had he not been expecting Kara to speak. She was the sort that could never keep something to herself it if was truly bothering her. She’d try, at first, to not burden others, but she was too much a fan of the truth being told to keep it in too long. And she was upset as well. She must have suffered nightmares of Krypton when she was younger, she would know the best way to help cope with a nightmare was to talk about it.

“It was…it was the robbery. It was just like it but…but you were shot and it was just a little to the side and it hit your heart and you bled…bled out.” Her voice began to tremble as tears filled her eyes once more. But she kept her gaze on his, refusing to look away. “You died in my arms.”

“I didn’t,” he reminded her, pressing her hand more firmly to his chest. “I’m right here.”

He could guess what had triggered this. They’d only just caught the person who had swapped his suit and gotten him into that situation in the first place. That, coupled with the bout with Red K she’d suffered, it would be enough for anyone to have a nightmare about it all.

“I was holding you,” she continued as though she hadn’t heard him. “You were looking at me, telling me you loved me, and then you just…” she broke off, sobbing. “I had to watch the light leave your eyes.”

Well that explained why she refused to let him look away. She needed to see that light still there. She needed to see him gazing back at her with something in his eyes, so he tried to focus on all the love he felt for her.

“I would never leave you,” he reassured her. “I love you too much to leave you like that. I’d fight, with everything I have, to stay with you. As long as you’ll have me for.”

“Forever,” Kara said instantly.

He tried to make his answering smile happier than he was sure it seemed. But there was always a doubt in him. She’d cast him off so easily in the past, it was sometimes hard to believe she’d keep him forever. But he wanted to believe she meant it though. He wanted it so badly that he’d force himself to believe it and cling to that belief, until the day came where she (maybe) cast him off again.

Kara must have seen something in his gaze, because her hand on his chest returned to his cheek, her thumbs stroking his cheek bones. “I love you, Mon-El.”

Whatever breath he had in him fled at her words, at the fierceness behind it, the force, the truth he could hear in her words, see in her eyes. She had finally said it.

And she MEANT it.

She’d said it earlier, while under the influence of Red K. But she hadn’t confirmed that she meant it then. She was doing it now. Free of its influence and of her own will. 

She meant it.

She loved him.

“I love you too.”

Kara smiled at his words, the first genuine smile she’d made since she woke up, and leaned in to kiss him, finally breaking eye contact.

Mon-El pulled away gently as the kiss drew to a close, hesitating a moment before he slowly laid back down, guiding Kara down with him. Instead of cuddling into his arms, like he expected, Kara scooted back a little more so she was lying on her side, facing him. 

“Can I do anything else for you?” he asked, reaching out to take her hand, entwining her fingers with his.

“Just…look at me.”

He nodded, keeping his eyes on her, ready to stay awake as long as she needed, ready to watch her softly fall asleep to the sight of his eyes, full of life and love, trained on hers.

“I love you,” he repeated.

Kara smiled, her eyes blinking quickly as she tried not to fall asleep, but the nightmare and crying had drained her. “I love you too.”

And that was how she fell asleep, beside Mon-El, the two of them gazing into each other’s eyes till they drifted off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of a shorter chapter, but I saw a few non-Karamel fics pop up and wanted to post this sooner to help make it so those were not the first ones you see on the Kara/Mon-El tag. So, by the time this is posted, it should be the second Karamel fic to help try to cancel out the three non-Karamel fics :-)
> 
> On a happier note, we finally got Kara's first ILY! :-D


	26. Getting Married

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title is self-explanatory. But there will be a mention of a DEO agent and an original character appearing too :-)

Kara felt she really should have expected it. On today of all days, she should have expected some sort of alien danger to pop up that required both her and Mon-El to be there. The DEO was under the strictest of orders by, not J’onn, he wasn’t nearly as scary as to have the entire DEO on edge, but Alex, not to call in the Kryptonian or Daxamite on that day.

And yet here they both were, standing in the DEO in attire that was completely NOT suited for dealing with an alien invasion.

But they had shown up. Because if J’onn of all people deemed it necessary, then they knew it HAD to be serious.

Kara was standing beside Alex, the woman seeming ready to shoot someone with her favorite alien gun even as she was decked out in a lovely red gown that fell to her knees embroidered with white stars. Maggie was there, dressed similarly but in a blue gown with mirroring embroidery. Kara knew, somewhere outside the DEO, Eve was matching Maggie. She herself was wearing…well, she couldn’t quite say. It was the longest jacket she could find, something loaned to her by Cat Grant and it fell to the floor, covering her entire body.

The men, from Mon-El to Winn, James and even J’onn were wearing suits.

They all looked so out of place what with the red flashing lights and alarms going off and the DEO agents running about with their guns. 

All of them were staring at a portal that was hovering just a foot off the ground and seemed to be stuck to the wall. It wasn’t big, about three feet, and it looked, oddly enough, like one of Cisco’s vibe portals. But the fact that no one had come through yet, but the readings of the portal were reporting something with extreme power, put them on edge. If it WAS Cisco, he would have sent word ahead or at least popped out, which made them fear who might step through.

Kara couldn’t help but tap her foot with uncharacteristic impatience in the face of a potential threat to Earth. A quick glance at Mon-El showed he was fixated on the portal, his hands in fists, ready to act if necessary. And she couldn’t help but smile at that. They had both learned and agreed that they just…couldn’t be partners out on the field. They worried about each other too much to be able to focus on what they needed to do. They had agreed to part in that area of their lives, but Mon-El had held true to his promise, whenever she needed extra help he was there at her side and ready to fight.

Today though, today was supposed to be the farthest thing from a fight, but a union instead.

And a stupid portal was ruining that.

Ok, so she was being just a tad overdramatic. There was still, at the very least, an hour before anything came close to ruining the day. But she didn’t like that it was getting even that close.

“Should we send someone through it?” Winn asked, noting how tense everyone else was. He couldn’t help but edge closer to Mon-El as he said it. Alex looked murderous and he did NOT want to find himself at the receiving end of her temper. Whatever could get this thing solved fastest would be best for everyone.

“We don’t know where it goes,” J’onn remarked, shaking his head.

“So let me through and…”

“No!” came the shout from pretty much every person standing around Kara.

“Kara, I love you,” Alex spoke with a sigh as she turned to her sister. “But I spent five hours doing your hair and if you mess it up, I will find some way to kill you.”

Kara held up her hand in surrender. “Well we need to find some way to close it down.”

“Actually, I don’t think we need to worry about that,” Dana said as she walked over to them. “Sir,” she turned to J’onn, “The scanners indicate something is coming through at an accelerated rate.”

“Barry?” Kara asked.

But Dana shook her head. “It doesn’t read like a portal from Earth 1.”

“Alright!” J’onn called out. “All Units on defense!”

Mon-El moved over to Kara’s side, taking her hand as the agents gathered, some kneeling, others standing, but all of them with weapons raised. Alex and Maggie both took their guns out, ready to help, and just in time too. For the swirling of the portal, which had been going at a leisurely rate, had sped up. It was moving so fast now that it seemed like the portal was just one blur instead of gentle swirls.

A pulse of light flared and a blue blob fell out of the portal, landing with an undignified oomph.

The DEO watched, tense, as the blob stood up, revealing…a girl.

Mon-El frowned as he observed the girl before them. She was young, in her early teens, he’d assume based on what he knew of Earth’s aging scales. And small. She wasn’t short, but she was slim and petite, looking more like a delicate ballerina than anything. Her outfit added to that. It was a short-sleeved dress of some sort, light blue in color, tighter on her upperbody but flowing from her waist to her knees. She had boots on that went to just below her knees. Her hair was golden and curly, held up in a high ponytail and her eyes…one would think they’d be blue, given her dress but they were an almost silver color and sparkling.

Her eyes were far too wide and innocent, too open and excited, to have any kind of foul intent. And he had seen many sorts of eyes in his lifetime, from the hard ones of his parents to the innocent ones of children, and this girl, whoever she was, held them no ill will.

“Who are you?” J’onn demanded.

The girl just stared at them, taking them all in, noting their attire. She seemed oddly fixated on what they were wearing. “This is June 21st, right?” she asked instead. “2018?”

“Yes?” Winn answered, though it sounded more like a question than anything.

“Awesome!” the girl cheered, actually jumping in place and punching the air. “It worked! Ooh I cannot wait to tell…” her hands flew to her mouth, covering it quickly. “Sorry!” she apologized. “Sorry. Have to be careful what I say.”

“I ask you again. Who are you?” J’onn frowned, crossing his arms.

The girl frowned at him. “I almost forgot you frown a lot,” she muttered. “It’s so weird to see you all frowny face.” She seemed to try and mimic his disapproving non-smile but just couldn’t seem to get her face to work. “I mean, I thought it was weird to see un…um…Winn without a beard but,” she shrugged. “Different time, different place.”

“Look,” Alex cut in. “What do you want? Why are you here? What was that portal?”

“I’m really sorry.” The girl seemed genuinely contrite as she spoke. “But I can’t say. I really can’t. All I can tell you is that…um…as hard as it might be to believe, my name is Ally and I’m from the future. I came here to try and save it.”

“You?” James snorted, eyeing her. “How old are you? 12?”

The girl huffed at that, putting her fists on her hips. “I am nearly 14, Mr. Meanie.”

“So 13 then.”

Mon-El couldn’t help but look from the girl to James and back. God, there was something eerily familiar about the girl. Looking at her just then, something niggled at the back of his mind that he should know her for some reason.

The girl, Ally, rolled her eyes, dropping her arms. “I wouldn’t have been sent back to your present if I couldn’t do this.”

“Do what?” Maggie asked. “What are you supposed to save the future from?”

Ally seemed to hesitate a moment, scratching the side of her cheek and Kara was hit with a similar sensation to Mon-El, that this girl was oddly familiar.

“Uncle Cisco was very firm that I not tell you too much,” Ally muttered.

Kara shifted at those words. So the girl knew Cisco, but, for some reason, her portal had not come from Cisco’s Earth. But if she called the man Uncle…maybe she was Barry’s daughter or Caitlyn’s? She hadn’t displayed any sort of superpower for her to narrow it down.

“You’ve got to give us something or we’re going to have to take you into custody,” Alex stated.

Ally’s gaze drifted to Alex at that, a small smile on her face. “You said that you’d say that.”

Alex blinked. “You know me in the future? Did I send you through the portal?”

Ally looked away, sighing after a moment before looking back. “One of Earth’s enemies got hold of a portal and travelled 15 years into Earth’s past to try and…stop something happening that leads to, what people call, Earth’s Golden Age of Peace. Our detectors picked it up and I came back to stop it happening. I don’t really need YOUR help to do that. Trust me, this guy is a joke that even my 5 year old brother could handle with his hand tied behind his back. But I’d really rather not have to sneak into Supergirl and Valor’s wedding and…”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Kara cut in, gaping at the girl. “You know who we are?” she gestured at herself and Mon-El.

“She DID say Cisco was her uncle,” Mon-El reasoned. “And she clearly knows Alex and J’onn and Winn…”

“I really suck at not revealing future info, don’t I?” Ally nearly whined at that. “I wasn’t supposed to let all that slip. But it’s just…seeing all of you like you are NOW, it’s so weird.”

“Look, just because she dropped a few names, doesn’t mean we can really trust that she KNOWS us,” Alex countered.

“And you said you’d say that too,” Ally called. “So that’s why you gave me proof.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out what seemed to be a white rectangular paper. She smiled as she looked at it before her glance flickered up to them again. “You told me to go get this, you gave it to me a while ago, but you said that ONLY you were allowed to look at it,” her gaze was fixed on Alex. “You said that it would be enough to prove to you that I’m here to help and get you to trust me.”

“That must be a hell of a paper,” Winn muttered, earning a glare from Alex even as the others nodded.

“I’m just going to put this down,” Ally continued. Setting the paper face down on the ground and taking a few steps back, her hands up to show she had no weapons on her and meant no harm.

Alex gave her a look before glancing at J’onn for the go-ahead. He gave her a jerking nod and Alex stepped forward to pick the paper up. She clearly was not expecting anything profound to be etched on the other side, judging by her expression. But the complete 180 her expression did at the sight of the paper was enough to make the others curious. 

Because Alex had gone from unimpressed and serious, to gaping and staring with an astonished look in mere seconds. 

Her head snapped over to look at Ally, the girl looking sheepish.

“I swore I’d only give this to…” Alex cut herself off, staring at Ally as though she were a completely different person.

Ally shrugged, a small smile on her face. “You did.”

“Alex, you ok?” Kara called a moment later, because Alex had literally stormed across the room and pulled the little girl into her arms, hugging her tightly. 

“What was ON that paper?” Mon-El muttered.

J’onn just smiled secretly, having kept his mind trained on Alex’s to ensure nothing was going to inhibit her or try to alter her, not about to trust that the paper wasn’t some advanced tech meant to harm. He was glad he’d been so wrong.

“I’m fine,” Alex pulled away from the girl, but she kept her one arm around Ally’s shoulders. Her other hand came up to wipe beneath her eyes, whatever it was that she’d seen on it had been enough to drive her to tears over it. But she was smiling widely. “She’s legit. We can trust her.” 

Alex handed the paper back to Ally who tucked it into her pocket. “Thanks.”

“As much as this may veer from protocol,” J’onn cut in, not needing to read Kara or Mon-El’s mind to know they were both about to launch into questions for Alex about the girl. “I believe the wedding of the century is about to take place and we need to be heading out.”

“Yes!” Alex pointed at the man. “We need to leave right now if we want to get this thing off the ground on time.”

Alex pointedly ignored Kara’s protests as she half shoved her sister out of the room and to the car that would transport them to the venue. She sent a pointed look at J’onn to make sure that Ally came with them as they all headed out of the DEO.

*************************************************************************************************************************************

Ally couldn’t help but smile as she observed the venue. She was standing behind a fountain, not trusting herself to sit down with the other guests. The wedding hadn’t started yet, but guests were already in place. With Mon-El being a refugee on Earth and not having had time to gain a family of his own like Kara had, it didn’t make sense to have a side for the bride and a side for the groom, but instead just one large sitting area. There were a few aliens mixed in, from what she could see. Some aliens from the bar, others she recognized as Daxamites that had chosen to stay on Earth after Queen Rhea’s downfall, wanting to make a life of their own and follow their former-prince. Overall though it was just one large gathering of people.

But a very specific amount. With Kara and Mon-El being Supergirl and Valor, even with Valor appearing more infrequently, everyone was on a very set plan. There were only enough seats for the guests and the guest count was very strict. If anyone was out of place, they’d be spotted instantly. Some guests were also DEO agents in disguise. Not to discount the various DEO agents stationed around the venue itself to keep any threats out.

But that was the problem with a venue like this. It was a garden, a large botanical garden usually open to the public. There were different ways in and out and they could only close off so much of it for a wedding. The DEO wouldn’t be able to tell the person she was after was there. Not when he was a shapeshifter. A very poor one, but one nonetheless. And one with a unique ability to mask his DNA to reflect whatever he turned into. He could pretend to be a human and it would read human if any scanners were used.

But she knew she could find him easily. He gave off a rather…unique scent that only a few noses in the entire establishment would pick out. That’s why she stayed closer to the fountain than the flowers crowding the “altar” where Mon-El was standing, ready for Kara to walk down the aisle. 

That meant it was nearly time, the ceremony was going to begin any moment.

Which was why she was quite surprised when she smelled the shapeshifter approaching before Kara was even beside Mon-El. She would have figured that any real villain would have waited till the two were together to attack them both in one go. Attacking one would just draw the other out at the ready for a battle. 

Then again, she hadn’t been lying when she said the shapeshifter in question was an easy fix. She was actually sure that Supergirl and Valor could handle the man easily…had it not been for the weapons their information had claimed he’d taken with him. He had access to Kryptonite and Lead. One single attack, all he had to do was take out one of them, during a time they least expected it, and it would all be over. 

With the DEO protections, she knew neither Kara nor Mon-El would be thinking an attack would happen. Not to regular old “humans” Mike Matthews and Kara Danvers. But someone from the future, who knew who they were when they were being superheroes? That was another thing. They wouldn’t think of an attack, they’d trust the DEO to take care of it. And they couldn’t risk revealing themselves in front of so many civilians who were just friends of theirs, like Eve and Adam and Snapper. Even if some, like Cat Grant were already suspicious.

And, when she really thought about it, there was a devastating quality to this plan. If he attacked Mon-El now, the man understandably having less experience than Supergirl and a greater vulnerability than she did, he would likely be able to wound or even kill him. Just walk right up to him with a smile, pretending to be an invite of Kara’s come to congratulate the groom, and pull a gun to shoot him in the head when he wasn’t expecting it. Kara would hear it and be there instantly, the chaos of the guests running would be nothing compared to Kara seeing Mon-El dead on the ground. She would lose it, lose all focus, want to get to him before she even considered how it happened, which would leave the shifter with enough time in her gut reaction to shoot her with the Krytponite bullet as well.

He would use her devastation at seeing her love dead to end her as well. 

Luckily for them, she was there and ready for action and she didn’t have those same weaknesses.

She spun on her heel, hurrying to leave the main section and following her nose to the source of the god awful smell. She could see a man appearing to be observing the flowers as he slowly made his way closer to the venue. Her nose didn’t lie, it was the shifter.

She glanced around, making sure no one could see her, before she nodded to herself. 

The next thing anyone would know, a blur shot out and rushed the man, circling around him as a gust of frigid white air swarmed him like a cyclone. 

Ally stepped back, brushing off her hands as she observed her work.

The shifter was frozen with ice covering every inch of him.

*************************************************************************************************************************************

The wedding had been amazing, at least if anyone asked Ally about it. She’d gotten back to her spot by the fountain before anyone had really noticed she’d gone. Just in time for the music to start and everyone to get in place. Soon the bridesmaids were walking in with the groomsmen. Maggie and J’onn, Eve and James, followed by Alex and Winn as the Maid of Honor and Best Man. And then came the bride.

Kara had been beautiful in her white gown. There was a blue jewel in the embroidered belt of her gown, with golden ribbons dangling from it and blending into the gown, like a comet. 

Clark had walked her down the aisle, to a Mon-El that hadn’t taken his gaze from Kara since she appeared, tears in his eyes and the widest, most loving smile on his face. Kara herself couldn’t keep the grin off her face as she looked at the man she loved. Clark had shaken Mon-El’s hand before placing it in Kara’s to face the minister…Eliza. They hadn’t wanted a normal church wedding, but wanted to find a way to blend their Kryptonian and Daxamite customs with Earth traditions, and they didn’t want a stranger to officiate so they had asked Eliza.

It had been beautiful and touching. The vows exchanged by Kara and Mon-El just moving, serious, and full of so much love Ally cried herself to witness it.

The kiss right at the end as well had been cheer-worthy and filled with the amused laughter of the guests when Mon-El had kissed Kara and then pulled her in to twist her and dip her. The kiss had lasted quite a bit past socially acceptable, but even Kara wasn’t complaining about it or trying to end it. 

The best part, for all involved, was that there were no alien attacks during it.

Which, Ally thought, should have told her that what happened right at the end should have been expected. 

Kara and Mon-El walked down the aisle, followed by the others that led them in, and Eliza, and disappeared to a different part of the closed-off-venue to give the guests a chance to head for the reception hall. But Alex had snuck back and tugged her onward to join them in the closed off section. She should have expected the questions she got when she arrived, about whether she’d been telling the truth because clearly no alien had attacked them.

“Guys, guys!” Ally cut into their overlapping talking, holding up her hands to quiet them. “It’s been dealt with.”

“What?” Mon-El shook his head.

Ally nodded. “I smelled him coming and went to stop him before the ceremony.”

“And you couldn’t have let one of us know that?” Kara gaped at her. “I was on edge the entire time wondering if the next second was going to be an attack!”

Alex actually snorted at that. “Sure you were.”

“I was!”

Eliza’s smile was soft as she looked at her adopted daughter. “It seemed like you forgot all about that the second you saw Mon-El.”

Kara flushed at that but couldn’t actually argue.

Mon-El reached out and took Kara’s hand, lifting it to kiss the back of it. “It was the same for me.”

Ally sighed as she watched them, a soft smile on her face. “And so it begins.”

“What?” Both Mon-El and Kara looked at her.

“Nothing!” she said quickly, but she was smiling too widely to be believed.

“How did you take care of the threat?” Alex looked at Ally, getting them back on track.

“Yes, and where is it?” J’onn crossed his arms. “We’ll need to take him into custody and…”

“You kind of can’t,” Ally began as she turned and led them to where she’d disabled the shifter. “He hasn’t committed a crime yet but your laws. I have to take him back with me to the future, where he DID commit the crime, for him to be charged there. Ta-da!” She gestured at the frozen specimen.

“YOU did that?” Winn stepped closer to examine it, reaching out to touch it lightly, afraid to press to hard and have it shatter.

“Yup!” Ally cheered. “Pretty cool right?” She looked around at them, expectant. “Right? Cool. Get it?” She sighed when no one laughed but kept smiling. “I did good right? I KNEW I could do it! And I didn’t even have to fight him! Just sped up on him and pesto!”

Kara looked at her for that, for the remark about superspeed and the very clear use of ice powers. But…that couldn’t be right. The last time she checked, Barry and Iris were getting married, not Barry and Caitlyn

Mon-El too looked over at Ally, but more for her use of “pesto” instead of “presto.” 

“And how are you getting him back?” J’onn eyed the statue.

“With this,” Ally held up her wrist, revealing a small bracelet. “I just have to activate this and…” Before she could even finish speaking, a portal opened up right behind her. She froze, tensing, her face morphing into a comically “caught” expression. “And there’s a portal right behind me now, isn’t there?”

“Yes?” Winn stepped away from the statue.

“Did you do that?” Alex began to reach for her gun stashed on a holster under her dress, not about to risk a real threat coming through the portal if Ally hadn’t done it.

“Nope.” Ally winced. 

She slowly turned around to face the portal just as two blobs jumped out of it and rightened to full height.

“Ally!” a woman gasped as she rushed to the girl, hugging her tightly. “What were you thinking!?”

“What was Alex thinking letting you through Cisco’s portal,” the man who joined her muttered as he too joined the hug.

“You guys are seeing this too, right?” Winn pointed at the older versions of two of them standing there and checking if Ally was alright. “You see Kara and Mon-El, yeah?”

The two future versions of the heroes looked up at the mention of their names to see their past selves, along with their friends standing before them.

“Ally…” Future-Kara turned a stern eye on the girl. “Explain. Now.”

Ally gave them a sheepish smile. “Hopper was going to come back and stop the wedding. I HAD to stop him first!”

Future-Mon-El looked at the frigid statue the girl gestured at and let out a low whistle. “You did a number on him.”

“Mon-El!” Future-Kara hissed at him, disapproving. 

Future-Mon-El though, quite unlike his past self who would have instantly apologized for what he’d said, just laughed and wound an arm around Future-Kara’s shoulders. “Come on, babe. You can’t honestly say she hasn’t done good work.”

“I didn’t say that,” Future-Kara defended, though it made Ally beam to hear both of them were proud of her accomplishment. “But she shouldn’t have come alone. She’s only JUST started to train using her powers like this and…”

“And I kicked butt!” Ally cheered. She turned and made a very slow punch in front of her with one hand and then the other, followed by a slow kick to the air. “I rocked!” Followed by a little dance.

Future-Kara could only sigh, but there was a fondness in it. “We’ll discuss this later. We need to get you back home.”

Ally’s smile started to fade. “I’m going to be grounded for this. Aren’t I?”

Future-Mon-El laughed. “Most definitely, Mi-Filillia.”

Mon-El stiffened at the words his future-self spoke, at what he’d called Ally.

Ally however sighed. “Can we at least get ice cream first?”

“Home, first.” Future-Kara pointed a finger at her and then the portal.

Ally huffed, but turned a smile on the others. “Bye guys!” And practically skipped through the portal.

Future-Mon-El moved over and hefted the frozen criminal up into his arms. “I’ll take this on ahead,” he told Future-Kara who nodded and gave him a kiss.

“I’m sorry if she caused you any trouble,” Future-Kara apologized to the stunned group. “She’s rambunctious. But she means well.”

“It was no trouble at all, Kara,” Alex reassured her. 

“Time Travel,” Winn spoke, sounding awed. “You guys have that in the future!?”

Future-Kara laughed. “Only Cisco and Barry managed to work that out.” She looked down at her watch. “And I have to go, sorry. Duty calls.”

“Bye?” Kara called to her future-self.

Future-Kara just waved and turned to head through the portal that closed behind her. 

“Seriously, our wedding better not be this crazy,” Maggie muttered to Alex.

Alex began to nod, before Maggie’s words caught up to her. “OUR wedding?” she rounded on the woman. “That had better NOT be your way of proposing to me!”

Maggie chuckled. “No, it’s not. But I wanted you to be prepared that it’s gonna happen.”

Alex beamed at that.

Kara began to smile as a thought struck her. She turned to look at a rather stunned Mon-El. “Hey,” she drew his attention to her. “You know what that means?” She nodded her head at where the portal had been.

“I think so.” Mon-El nodded, his mind racing at what Ally and his future-self had revealed.

“We’re still together 15 years in the future,” Kara finished, leaning in to kiss him before she turned to talk to J’onn about whether this would have to be recorded and reported at the DEO.

Mon-El just swallowed hard at that, a smile forming on his face. That was an added bonus he hadn’t realized till just now, but not quite what else he’d discovered. 

Alex stepped up beside him, observing him intently, seeming to see something in his expression. “You know who she is, don’t you?”

Mon-El nodded. “Mi-Filillia,” he repeated. “Means “my little girl” on Daxam. It means daughter. She’s our daughter.” 

Ally was his and Kara’s child. 

And, what’s more, she mentioned a brother as well. She had at least one sibling.

He had children with Kara.

He should have realized she was their daughter though. She looked like a little Kara, but with his eyes and nose and ears. She had their habits too. She couldn’t insult someone if her life depended on it. She scratched her cheek when she was nervous or flustered. She even did the little thing he did when he was excited, punching and kicking the air. She got words wrong like he did, pesto instead of presto. She had his superspeed and Kara’s super nose and ice breath. She was just a ball of sunshine like Kara was and so eager to help and protect. It should have been obvious to him from the get go.

“You know who she is too,” Mon-El stated, not even asking.

But Alex nodded anyway. “That paper she had. It was a picture I took of you and Kara. I swore to myself I would give it to your child one day and only to them.”

“What was the picture of?”

“The moment I realized you two were it for each other.”

It was a picture she’d taken of Kara just after Mon-El had woken up from the Medusa Virus. The relief in Kara’s face, the way that Mon-El’s eyes had instantly sought Kara’s first. The way Kara had been holding his hand without even realizing it. There was something there, something between them. Maybe they hadn’t fully realized what it was, but she knew, she could tell. And she’d HAD to take a picture of it, for the future, to show her nieces and nephews that this was the moment she knew their parents were the ones for each other.

Mon-El smiled at the thought that Alex had seen it between them too. He glanced back at Kara and then to Alex. “Do you think Kara realized?”

Alex shook her head, “No. I think she thinks Ally is like an alternate Barry and Caitlyn’s or something.”

“Should I tell her?” it was a pretty big thing not to let Kara know.

Alex thought on it for a while, before ultimately shaking her head. “If she doesn’t work it out herself, I wouldn’t. She’ll never let that girl out of her sight as it is, imagine if she realized Ally would one day time travel to the past to take out her first bad guy?”

Mon-El had to laugh at that. Kara would ground that girl for her entire life from the moment she was born. 

“It would be a nice surprise for her,” he reasoned. “I don’t want to take the joy she’ll find at being a mother, at being ABLE to be a mother, from her like that. I don’t want her to want a child just because she thinks we need to have one so Ally will be born. I just…I want Kara to come to terms with it in her own time.”

Alex looked at Mon-El for that. “And that’s one of the reasons I’m glad Kara chose you.”

He understood a lot of what Kara thought and went through. To arrive on Earth as a child and realize that, if just KISSING a boy could break their nose, what would sex with a man do to him? Kara had lived in fear for so long that she’d never be with anyone without fear of castrating them, that she’d given up all hope of ever having a child. 

And then Mon-El came along.

She didn’t think her sister had fully grasped that the possibility of motherhood existed again. Mon-El and Kara were physiologically and biologically compatible, being from sister planets and with Daxamites being a very distantly offshoot version of a Kryptonian. She knew her sister had been able to BE with Mon-El the way she couldn’t with a human. But she doubted Kara had actually realized it would be possible to have children again. If she had, she probably would have worked out who Ally was. But, in Kara’s mind, it was such an impossibility that, despite the evidence of Ally’s ability and seeing how her future self interacted with the girl, she still couldn’t see it.

Ally had proven it wasn’t just a possibility but a reality.

And she didn’t want to take that from her sister either. She could just imagine the surprise and joy and excitement Kara would feel at finding out she was pregnant on her own than to have that surprise ruined by telling her who Ally was now. 

Though she really wished she had asked Ally what her full name was. She SO wanted the girl to be named after her very cool Aunt and for them to call the little Alexandra Ally so that there would be no confusion. But something inside her told her that the girl’s name was probably Allura, for Kara’s mother. Something inside her also told her it was probably Mon-El that would suggest that.

“Come on,” Alex nudged Mon-El. “We have a party to get to and I know you and Kara are dying to cut the cake.”

Mon-El beamed at that, turning to rush over to Kara, eager to get to that point too. That was one custom they both wanted to keep for Earth, a wedding cake. And he had even sworn he’d be a gentleman and NOT smush it into her face when the time came to feed each other the first bite.

Oddly enough, it had been KARA that had smushed it into his face.

(And Alex had the pictures to immortalize that moment forever. And then some. SO many pictures. But hey, her little sister got married! It was her right, as the elder sister, to capture every single moment with copious amounts of pictures.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you don't mind the addition of Ally. It was just a little headcanon I have that, if Kara and Mon-El had a child, and it was a girl, that they'd name her after Allura and call her Ally (because on Earth they could always just call her Alexandra too, in honor of Alex. Like how Mon-El is his alien name but on Earth he's Mike. Ally is a way to call her both.)
> 
> I wanted to write a chapter that showed the wedding and getting married, but also gave them more of a glimpse into the future, to a life well loved and married a long while, with children to show for it.
> 
> I also feel, if Kara and Mon-El had children, that they would be even more superpowered than their parents. Maybe they don't inherit Kryptonite weakness because Mon-El doesn't have that. And maybe they don't have a lead allergy because Kara doesn't. They'd be stronger and prove the theory that the next generation will always surpass the prior one :-) That and I just couldn't bear to think that their children would have the same life-threatening weaknesses.
> 
> I wanted to try and keep some mystery to Ally's identity till the end. Adding little hints that she COULD have been an alternate-Earth's child of Barry and Caitlyn. But, ultimately, she is Karamel's child :-)


	27. On One of Their Birthdays

Kara was SO excited. She could hardly stand it. She’d worked so hard all day, having actually taken the day off from CatCo to get everything set up and ready. Mon-El had picked up a double shift at the bar and had gone in earlier that day. He’d be back soon and she’d been determined for everything to be perfect.

It was a really special day and she just…she wanted it to go well.

And she was really glad that everyone else was able to make it too. Not that she expected anything less from them. They’d all come to care about Mon-El too, not quite as much as she did, but quite a bit. Alex, Maggie, Winn, James, even J’onn and Eliza and Lyra were there as well. The entire gang settled into her apartment and ready to help her pull off an awesome surprise. 

They’d even pitched in to help with decorations, each of them bringing something to help show Mon-El it was a group effort and that they all wanted to make the day amazing by…

Kara twisted quickly, hearing Mon-El’s familiar footsteps as he headed down her hall. 

“Everyone, shhh!” she hissed, gesturing for them to get in place as she turned and used her heat vision on one of the food items. She turned back right as the door began to open.

“Hey, Kara, I’m ho…” Mon-El started to say as he stepped through. 

But he cut off quickly when everyone else jumped in place with a shout of “Surprise!”

Mon-El stood there, gaping, just blinking as he took in everything. Everyone was there, wearing ridiculous paper cone hats with odd streamers on top of it. Winn had blown a paper streak from his mouth that made a weird noise. The table was full of treats and candy, his favorite Chinese food and red tubes and…a cake with candles burning on top of it. There were streamers and balloons all over the room and a giant banner hunt up that read “Happy Birthday” with a paper cutout of an Earth wedged between the Happy and Birthday.

He knew what it was, he could process that much. He had seen enough TV to know what a birthday looked like and heard enough comments from Alex here and there to know that, with the difference in travel and age and the ships getting knocked off course, there was no way to really know when his or Kara’s birthday was, so they celebrated an “Earth Birthday” instead.

That meant it was one year since he’d landed on Earth.

Kara and the others were throwing him a birthday party.

Mon-El swallowed hard as that hit him, looking at all the faces of those who had come to celebrate. His gaze lingered on Kara’s beaming face…

Of all the things Kara expected Mon-El to do when faced with a party dedicated solely to him, Mon-El slowly backing out of the room and out of the apartment, shutting the door softly behind him was not one of them.

“Do we eat now?” Lyra asked when the room fell silent.

Kara glanced at her sister and mother, a deep frown on her face and concern swimming in her eyes. Eliza nodded, resting a gentle hand on Kara’s shoulder to nudge her towards the door while Alex subtly turned to blow the candles out so the wax wouldn’t get on the icing.

Kara turned and hurried out of the apartment to check on Mon-El.

Because this reaction was not like her boyfriend at all.

*************************************************************************************************************************************

If Kara hadn’t been listening in when Mon-El approached and then left her apartment, she wouldn’t have thought to check the roof for him. But there he was, sitting on the ground with his back to the ledge of the building, just staring up at the barely visible stars.

Kara hesitated a moment, but Mon-El didn’t seem like he’d noticed she’d arrived as he made no move nor gave her any look indicating that. She made her way over to him slowly, sitting down beside him and gazing up as well, not sure where to begin.

“Was it the surprise?’ she asked, because that was literally the only thing they’d said to him before he’d left.

“No.”

Kara’s brow crinkled, her mind racing to try and think of some reason for him to have left like that.

“It was a birthday party.”

Kara looked at him for that. They had been silent for nearly five minutes as she racked her mind for a reason, looking at every miniscule part of the party she’d put together to see where she’d gone wrong or what fault there was.

The fact that it was a birthday party didn’t even cross her mind.

“I know the chance of it being your actual birthday are slim,” Kara apologized. “With the travel from Daxam to Earth and the years you were in the coma. I can understand if it upset you that it wasn’t your actual birthday. I’m sorry about that. I can ask Winn to try and figure out…”

“It’s not that,” Mon-El cut in gently, but he still hadn’t taken his eyes off the stars. “I’m actually really touched that any of you remembered the day I landed. In the moment, it felt like something you’d all wished never happened.”

Kara felt her heart break for that, because it was true. The way they had all treated him those first few hours he’d woken up weren’t the best. She didn’t blame him for being surprised they’d even remember what day it was.

Kara reached out, resting a hand on his arm. “Is it the age thing?” she tried to tease him. Winn had jokingly suggested that they celebrate this as Mon-El being closer to sixty or seventy due to the decades he’d been in a coma, but she’d shot it down. 

Because that would just be the same for her really. She’d been 12 when she left Krypton. Kal-El had been a baby, but had been already an adult thought to be about 22 when she arrived. So, if they held true to that, she was technically 34 years old when she got to Earth. Add onto that the 13 years it took her to adapt before Mon-El even arrived, she was 47 years old. Mon-El had escaped Daxam around the age of 25 and been stuck in a coma for 35 years. 

Maybe Mon-El had considered that? Maybe the party had reminded him of those years he lost? Did he consider himself 60 instead?

“No.”

If Kara wasn’t so worried about his uncharacteristic reaction, she knew she’d be getting frustrated with his one word answers.

Then a thought struck her. “Do they not celebrate birthdays on Daxam?”

Had she just inflicted a tradition on him that he didn’t even celebrate? Did she just try to force him into celebrating something he wanted nothing to do with?

“No.”

“No, you didn’t have them? Or no, that’s not the reason?”

Mon-El was silent.

“Mon-El please, you’re worrying me.”

That seemed to get through to him because he took a deep breath. “We celebrate Naming Days on Daxam. Any excuse we have to throw a party,” he said with a self-depreciating shrug. 

Kara blinked before she closed her eyes as his words sunk in. “And the Prince’s birthday would be the biggest of all after the King or Queen’s.”

He must have been underwhelmed. There were so few people there and if he was used to an entire planet celebrating the day he was born, to being worshiped on that level for an entire day…that small party she planned had to pale in comparison. Paper hats? A small cake? A gift of a stupid coupon book to cash in with her for little treats and activities?

What did that compare to the lavish affairs of Daxam? The insanely expensive clothing of royalty? The massive amounts of food they’d have served? The gold and jewels and riches and intricate gifts he’d receive?

“I hated that on Daxam.”

Kara’s head snapped up to look at him, actually startled he’d say that and sound like he really meant it. When he first got there…

She shook her head fiercely at that thought. She had to STOP comparing him to how he’d been when he first got there and had his guard up around everyone.

“You did?” she asked instead.

He nodded, gaze still on the stars. “Can you imagine an entire day of nothing but formalities? Of people just…trying to get your attention and get you drunk enough that you’d be willing to do anything with anyone? With more than one person? Or a single day where your parents actually SEEM like they care about you but it’s all just a front to remind the lower classes that their line is guaranteed to continue with their healthy heir? Or how about the gifts, so many you can’t even count them, but nothing that means anything to you, nothing with thought in it. Just assumptions about what you might like because you’re a prince? Having people focusing on you the entire day to the point where it doesn’t even feel like it’s about you anymore but about pleasing them?”

Kara squeezed his arm when she heard the tears threatening to choke his voice.

“A day on Earth meant to celebrate someone loved entering the world. On Daxam it was just a party, there was no meaning behind it, no care. It was just for show. Another year closer to latching age. We just…we didn’t CARE about anything on Daxam, certainly not about each other enough to really MEAN what a birthday celebration should be.”

“So…you like Earth celebrations for birthdays more than Daxam traditions?”

He could hear her question in her words. If he preferred Earth over Daxam in terms of birthdays, WHY had he walked out on the one she’d thrown?

“Even if I do,” he began, picking his words carefully, “I wasn’t expecting it. And when I saw it, all I could think about was how it would be on Daxam. And even though I didn’t care for it on Daxam, it was still a reminder that it would never be like that again. Because Daxam’s gone and so are all the traditions and anyone else that would celebrate it.”

After Rhea’s attempted invasion…it had not gone well. She had called her people there before realizing they were vulnerable to lead. And even then she had thought their superstrength and numbers and ships would be enough. It wasn’t. So many Daxamites had died before Mon-El had been able to stop Rhea and free the last of them. 

Most left. 

Most wanted to go to another world instead of the one they’d been forced to go to, the world where they’d nearly died. They wanted a world they weren’t vulnerable to the most common of weapons. There were still scores of angry humans that would take any chance they could get to fire on a Daxamite, and get away with it as a claim of self-defense.

There were a handful of Daxamites left on Earth, scattered about and well-hidden with use of the DEO resources. But not enough to gather that would make an impression. And, Mon-El likely thought, none that would want anything to do with him now that they were free to not have to care about their prince.

Kara could understand how that party had made him feel. She still remembered her first Earth Birthday. She’d locked herself in her room at the Danvers’ home and not come out for three days, crying herself to sleep the entire time. Because while it was a birthday of sorts and meant to be celebrated for her joining their family…to her, at the time, it had just been a reminder of the family she lost. It may have celebrated the day she arrived on the planet, but it was a reminder of WHY she’d had to leave hers. 

And seeing the Earth traditions, it was a reminder of the traditions she’d never be able to celebrate again with her family. Oh they tried to adapt to Kara’s old traditions, but they didn’t understand them or the significance they had and they slowly faded away. 

She cursed herself for not thinking of that now. THAT was how she’d reacted to her first Earth Birthday as well. But she’d gotten so used to actually celebrating over the years that she hadn’t even thought of what memories or emotions or sorrow it would bring up for Mon-El.

She had lost her family and planet, but she’d been a child, just one of a number of leading houses.

Mon-El had lost his family and planet, and been an adult, been a prince, been THE ruling house and the one responsible for caring for the entire planet. That loss must have hit him deeper than she could ever imagine.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, leaning against him to wrap her other arm around him, wanting to comfort him. “I should have thought…”

But Mon-El shook his head. “It’s easier some days, to forget all of that. But every so often I see something or I hear something and I can’t help but think, “On Daxam…” but there is no Daxam anymore.” He finally pulled his gaze away from the stars and over to Kara. “Thank you for wanting to celebrate me being here…”

“With me,” Kara cut in gently, a small smile on her face.

Mon-El returned it with an equally small one. “With you,” he agreed. “I think, if I’d had time to…to get used to the idea of an Earth Birthday and what it means, I would have reacted better. I’m sorry.”

Kara shook her head firmly. “This one is on me. I wanted to surprise you, but I should have realized what a celebration like this would make you think of. I reacted worse to my first Earth Birthday. I should have at least told you I was planning it so you had time to mentally prepare. Or, actually, I should have asked you if you even wanted to celebrate something like this this year. I’m sorry.”

Mon-El’s smile grew a little more. “It’s ok.” He lifted a hand to touch her cheek. “I…I DO like some of the Earth traditions about the birthday. I like knowing that the others care about me enough to want to celebrate me arriving on Earth, despite the chaos it caused. And I like that you all care enough to wear those ridiculous hats…”

“Hey!” Kara laughed teasingly. “YOU get a paper crown so I wouldn’t be talking.”

Mon-El chuckled. “I like the fact that, if there are gifts, it’s because you wanted to get me one and probably put thought into it. That you got to know me enough to think I’d like something and not just picking the biggest most expensive thing because you think it’ll impress me. I like that it’s close friends and not everyone in the city. I like that it’s people that actually CARE about me. And I really like that you did this, Kara. I’m really glad that YOU are happy I’m on Earth.”

Kara blinked back her tears at his words. “I’m really happy you ARE.”

Mon-El leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips, resting his forehead to hers as he pulled back. “Did I see red tubes down there?”

Kara laughed heartily at that. “Yes.”

“And the cake is…”

“Chocolate,” she answered, knowing his love of chocolate, “With a Salted Caramel Icing.”

“Well,” he grinned as he pulled away, holding out a hand to her, “What are we waiting for!?”

Kara’s laugh echoed through the night as Mon-El, now-excitedly, stood up and hefted her up with him, rushing them both back to her apartment.

And she was really glad that she gave him the gift she did. He loved it more than Lyra and Winn’s DVD of those Star Wars animated shows, or James’ tie, or Alex and Maggie’s joint (hopefully a gag) gift of a book that made Kara blush to even think he owned (despite the fact that Mon-El, after a quick glance through it, remarked that there were quite a few positions missing), or even Eliza’s gift of a child’s science kit for him to “really experience science.” And he loved it WAY more than J’onn’s gift of an official DEO Agent badge and ID card. 

He really, REALLY loved her coupon book.

(She was a little less glad that Alex and her mother were there to witness Mon-El cash in on a coupon or two before the night was out. Alex had better delete those pictures.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since we got to see a little of Kara's Earth-Birthday, I wanted to explore Mon-El's as well. But for some reason, no matter how many times I wrote it, he never came across to me as being into the party aspect. Despite how much of a "frat boy" people thought he was, having been on Earth, I feel like he would have wanted a more intimate and close-knit birthday. But when I wrote it like that, he was just sad then too, and it hit me that it would be so starkly different than Daxam that it could only be a reminder of HOW different it is and WHY he's on Earth celebrating it instead of his planet :-( But at least we got some Karamel talking and some more pictures for Alex's collection :-)


	28. Doing Something Ridiculous

Kara couldn’t help but smile as she stood in the small second bedroom of her loft. It was a tiny room. Her loft, originally, was more a single bedroom apartment with a very large open loft area and she'd really preferred the large windows so she could wake up with the sun shining on her in bed so she'd never considered using that other room. Alex had commented that it wasn’t so, that the “bedroom” was actually the walk in closet. But, to Kara, that room had been HUGE. She hadn’t had much when she moved out there and she had a habit of wanting to fold things nicely and put them in their proper place. Her powers didn’t allow her to get too hot or cold during the more extreme seasons, so her clothing was mostly for show and the main closet, the coat closet, could fit all her dresses or other apparel that couldn’t be folded. 

And she HAD managed to fit a bed in that “bedroom” area, so she counted it as a bedroom and not a closet.

No one had really ever slept in there though, not even Alex. For the most part, guests tended to crash on her couch. And then Mon-El moved in and they shared the bed. He had even less stuff than she did so he didn’t need that much extra room to put all his plaid shirts. 

Now though, now she couldn’t help but beam as she stood in the “bedroom” area. It was bare of everything. There was a giant tarp on the ground and the small window in the wall was wide open to release the smell of paint that was steadily filling the room.

“You really should let me do this alone,” Mon-El remarked as he set down the two cans of paint he’d carried in, the roller and brushes already in the room.

“I told you, the smell is perfectly safe.”

Mon-El stepped closer to her, reaching out to rest his hand on her stomach. The bump wasn’t that big, barely noticeable in the old sweatshirt she was wearing, but it was there. They had been married for about a year and already had a little bundle of even more joy on the way.

They were ecstatic!

And they were pretty peeved that her uterus of steel meant they couldn’t see into it or what gender the baby was. Though Alex had teased she was sure it would be a girl, because the Danvers genes were strong genes and there were two female Danvers. She then ignored Kara’s reminder that she wasn’t biologically a Danvers and that her cousin was a male and Mon-El was a male in his family line so there was no guarantee.

Mon-El taking Alex’s side that he felt it was a girl had surprised her though. 

And yet, it hadn’t surprised her all that much either. Her first reaction was he’d want a boy, because princes usually wanted male heirs. There was an entire TV series about one king in England who went through numerous wives hoping for a boy and ended up with two girls first. But her second reaction was to remind herself Mon-El hadn’t been a prince in a very long while, hadn’t even acted like one for longer than that. 

And then she melted thinking about him with a daughter, holding a tiny little thing wrapped in a pink blanket in his arms and being the protective father who just doted on and adored his little girl.

Honestly, she could see either a girl or a boy, she had no preference so long as it was healthy. It would be the first mixed Kryptonian and Daxamite child, and the first of either species to be born on Earth.

(She agonized for Clark and Lois in that regard. They were still trying for a child, but Eliza feared it may not happen, that even if it did, Lois’s womb may not be able to withstand even a half Kryptonian child. One wrong kick the child could harm itself or Lois could end up with a broken rib or worse. SHE was in a better state to handle an alien child, being indestructible herself.)

She had been tossing up the idea of converting the guest room into a baby’s nursery for a while now and they were finally getting around to it. Mon-El had argued that she should sit it out since quite a few smells were triggering her being ill due to her already superpowered nose being ten times more powerful. 

(So much for having a stomach of steel.)

But, actually, the paint smelled really good to her. And, as odd as it sounded, it was making her crave pickles drenched in hot sauce. She had no idea why.

This was her baby’s room and she wanted to be a part of every step in the process of setting it up. Mon-El had given in easily when she’d flashed her comet-eyes at him and pouted a little. He gave in so easily when she did that she almost dreaded to think what he’d let their child get away with if it WAS a girl and if she had her blue eyes as well. 

(Everything. He’d let her get away with everything under this sun and all the others in the galaxy. She’d bet her life on it.)

Mon-El shook his head fondly and leaned in to give her a peck on the lips. “If you say so.”

“I do.” She grinned, triumphant, and turned to pop open one of the paint tins. She crinkled her nose as she saw the red paint staring up at her. “We agreed on the blue paint.”

“No,” Mon-El teased, moving to open the second one. “YOU said we should paint it blue, but we didn’t actually talk about it or agree on it. I, personally, prefer the red.”

Kara glanced over at him to see the second can did have the blue paint she wanted though. “Then why…” She gestured at his paint can.

Mon-El stood, a small bit of the blue paint on his brush and went over to the wall, brushing a few strokes on it. He turned and handed her the blue-paint brush, before moving to do the same with a different brush and the red paint, setting up the two colors on the wall. “I thought this would help us decide.”

Kara crossed her arms and tilted her head to observe the colors. She knew that the blue was, as far as what earth seemed to term “gendered colors,” meant to represent boys, while pink was for girls. That wasn’t how she saw it though, because they didn’t know which gender their baby was (and even then, when the child was older, it might reveal it was a completely different gender than how they were born, or both, or neither, and she would love her child no matter what as, she was sure, Mon-El would too). She didn’t see blue for boys, she saw blue as representing the House of El, it was the color of her suit, of her cousin’s suit, the color they wore as superheroes and a strong color for any child of hers.

But, equally, she knew why Mon-El favored the red. They HAD actually discussed WHY they picked the colors they had, they just hadn’t decided which one to use. Mon-El saw it as a reminder of Daxam. That shade of red reminded him of the royal colors of the Daxam family, as well as the sky of his planet. Even though he wasn’t a prince anymore, the color did remind him of his family, the few good memories he had of them. It reminded him of his planet and how far the survivors had come after they’d been freed. And, he argued, red technically wasn’t a gendered color as it wasn’t pink, so it was more neutral than blue, AND it was part of her suit as well, in her red cape and such.

Looking at it now, on the wall, she could admit the red did have a certain appeal, or at least that shade of red.

“You’re crinkling,” Mon-El remarked.

Kara’s hand immediately shot up to her forehead, feeling the crease there. “I am not.” She couldn’t help those words though, it was an automatic response now. Even when she clearly was crinkling, she would deny it to the grave.

(Secretly she loved it when he pointed out she was crinkling. Because he noticed. It was a reminder, each time, that he cared enough to notice when she did it and know what it meant. And, if she denied it, it just made him keep pointing it out later.)

Mon-El chuckled. “You are. Right there…”

Mon-El’s eyes widened comically when his action to point out her crinkle went a very different path than he intended.

He had intended to just point at her crinkle, tap it like he always did…only he had forgotten he was holding a paintbrush at the time.

And now Kara had a blob of red paint right in the middle of her eyebrows.

Kara’s eyes crossed as she tried to look up at the suddenly cold feeling on her face before they narrowed at Mon-El.

“I did NOT mean to do that!” He held his hands up in innocence.

Kara’s expression morphed into a not-quite-deceptively understanding smile as she stepped closer to him. “I know you didn’t. I can tell. Your eyebrows are in your hairline, right…there!”

Mon-El nearly clinched back as Kara quickly reached out with her blue-paint brush and ran it right along his hairline. 

He would have let it go. Paint streak for paint streak…had it not been for the far too-smug look on her face after she got him.

This time his eyes narrowed at her, though far more playfully. “You do NOT want to go to war against a Daxamite, Supergirl.”

Kara snorted. “Already did. And, remind me again, who won?”

Before Kara could even blink, Mon-El had reached out and painted a spot of paint on her nose. “Me.”

“Oh it’s ON!” Kara declared, before rushing at him with her own brush, managing to dab him on the chin before he flinched too far back.

It left something to be said that none of their efforts to find victory in the paint war ended up with any paint actually ON the walls despite how they ended up slinging and dumping and flicking and throwing paint at each other. It was an honest to god miracle that the only paint on the wall was the two initial streaks Mon-El had done.

The same could not be said for the two Supers, who found themselves covered head to toe in paint, base coats of red or blue, followed by mishmashes of both colors from when they would hug the other or mock-tackle them down, using themselves to get more paint on the other. The tarp was, as Mon-El insisted, a masterpiece of red and blue streaks that he begged Kara to let them keep without washing. Kara agreed only on the condition that Mon-El help her wash the paint out of her hair (as though their following shower wouldn’t involve that).

In the end, their little ridiculous paint war DID allow them to finally pick a color for the room. Purple. A blend of red and blue, a neutral color, and one that allowed far more accent colors than others would.

And IF the only way they decided on that color was because Alex had found them just finishing their war and commented in her dry-unamused(yet really very amused) way that they were being ridiculous because it was easier to paint the walls purple with brushes than themselves, well…Alex would be sure to tell their future children it was all thanks to her that they ended up with a purple room instead of one divided in half so one side was red and the other was blue like some kind of living comic book.

(And if she sneakily took pictures of the two before coughing to interrupt them, well…she would be ready with the photos on hand whenever the kids decided to draw on the walls to save them from their parents’ grounding.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There were so many ridiculous things they could have done, but I just kept going back to a paint war and then trying to work out why they'd be painting something, and the idea of painting a nursery came in :-)
> 
> And guys! There's only 2 chapters left! O.O This went by so fast!
> 
> I don't really follow the Superman shows or comics, so I'm not sure if Clark has a child at some point with Lois or not. Right at this chapter, I tried to keep it open as speculation if he can or can't. I'd think that even a half-Kryptonian half-Earthling would still be really strong even as a baby and that could seriously injure Lois. But if I'm completely wrong and he DOES have a child with her somewhere then it still leaves the possibility of a child for them in the story :-)


	29. Doing Something Sweet

“Alex!” came Winn’s excited (and quite obviously relieved) voice the second Alex stepped into Kara’s apartment. “Thank god.”

Alex paused as she glanced over at the man who looked like he was about to get on his knees and beg for something. Her gaze went past him to…Kara and Mon-El sitting in exactly the same position they were when she’d left for her lunch with Maggie, with the exact same piles of papers before them, and the same two books lying open before them. Clearly they had made next to no progress in the last two hours despite promising her they would have a good portion finished before she got back. She had left Winn in charge of keeping them on task, with the express order to do just that.

He had failed.

Worse yet, it seemed like he’d been tortured as well.

Because Kara and Mon-El both had their big, stupid, goofy grins on while they stared at each other the most besotted expressions on their faces. They had moved closer to each other on the couch, something she hadn’t thought was possible given how close they’d been sitting when she left. And Kara was gently touching Mon-El’s cheek, the man’s hand lightly resting on her knee, both of them whispering to each other. It was the epitome of sweetness.

She could guess exactly what happened.

They’d gotten distracted by each other, yet again, and Winn just did not have what it took to pull them out of each other’s gravitational pull long enough to focus on the task. She blamed herself. She should have known Winn couldn’t handle two supers so disgustingly (and adorably) in love. Ever since Mon-El had proposed, it was like he and Kara were in their own little world. One single glance at the other and their attention was just shot.

And the flirting! She’d thought they (Mon-El) was bad just dating, but now that they were engaged, it was on a whole other level. Even when Kara was on a mission, they somehow managed to STILL flirt through the comms. It was nauseating (and swoon-worthy). 

Given the goal of the little project Kara and Mon-El had insisted on doing today, she really should have expected them to get this off topic. 

“Go on.” Alex nodded at the door, making a sweeping motion for Winn to escape now while he could.

She barely caught his “thanks!” as he was literally running out of the apartment.

Alex sighed, rubbing her forehead with her finger, before gathering herself enough to deal with the lovesick aliens before her.

A shrill whistle filled the room as Alex let one out, causing Kara and Mon-El to jump and turn to face her. 

“Alex!” Kara smiled at her sister. “Did you forget your wallet?”

“What?” Alex shook her head, confused.

“For your lunch with Maggie,” Mon-El explained, winding an arm around Kara’s shoulders, Kara instantly leaning into him.

“Which I went to,” Alex pointed out, realizing it must have been much worse than she thought if they hadn’t realized two hours had passed or that she’d even left for that long. “Two hours ago.”

“Really?” Kara blinked, before laughing.

“Time flies when you’re staring at the sun,” Mon-El quipped.

Kara turned to him. “It’s “when you’re having fun,”” she corrected.

Mon-El considered it a moment, humming in thought. “Really? I’m pretty sure I was staring at my sun.”

Kara blushed at that, her expression growing more dopey as she leaned in to kiss him for his sweet words.

Alex quickly clapped her hands to startle them back to reality. “Hey! Hey!” She put her hands on her hips. “Did you two get ANYTHING done while I was out?” Their sheepish expressions after they glanced at the open books was answer enough. “You promised.”

“I know, I know,” Kara apologized. “But we just…”

Mon-El picked up when Kara faltered to come up with an answer, “The pictures were…”

“If I knew those pictures were going to make you both lose your minds, I never would have given them to you.”

Alex ALMOST felt bad to say that when Kara and Mon-El’s expressions turned to those of horror and betrayal.

“Don’t ever say that!” Kara quickly picked up the papers before her, cradling them to her chest as though protecting them from Alex, as though Alex were about to snatch them away.

Mon-El reacted similarly by grabbing one of the books, that only had barely two pages filled and attempting to glare at Alex to stay back.

Alex rolled her eyes skyward, asking for patience and strength, before focusing on the two aliens again. “YOU were the ones that wanted to make a scrapbook. I don’t see you actually MAKING a scrapbook instead of making moon eyes at each other.”

“Comets,” Mon-El corrected instantly.

“What?”

Kara just turned back to him, her expression lovestruck once more, “Mon-El,” she whispered, leaning in to brush her nose with his as he grinned too.

“FOCUS!” Alex snapped when they both seemed about to kiss again. She let out a frustrated huff. “Alright, fine. Ultimatum time. If you two don’t finish at least one of the scrapbooks before tonight, I am going to take back every single picture I gave you.”

She tried her best to keep her expression stern and threatening…which must have worked because Kara and Mon-El instantly started to sort through the pictures at superspeed.

Alex smirked to herself as she watched them. 

The two aliens had been talking about their wedding plans and things they wanted to do during it, trying to blend Earth and Kryptonian and Daxamite traditions. One Earth custom they had both loved was how some couples would display pictures of their relationship, how it grew over time, significant moments in them, for the guests to enjoy and to reminisce on. But they hadn’t thought they had enough of them to really make it worth the effort…

So she may have stepped in and given them the very large box where she’d stored all the pictures she’d collected of them over the years. Copies of the pictures, at least. She still didn’t trust that Kara wouldn’t destroy some of them like she’d begged to be done a time or two and she was NOT about to risk losing some of her favorite pictures. There was only one single picture she hadn’t included, because she’d promised the only other person who would see it besides herself was their future children.

Still, it was a large box full to the brim of pictures of the two aliens in many situations and encounters.

Kara had been flabbergasted that there were SO many pictures and demanded to know how the hell they were possible. 

She hadn’t exactly told her how. She didn’t want to risk her sources disappearing. But…the DEO’s resources were far reaching and widespread. There were traffic cameras, they had security surveillance from some missions. There was a satellite just for the DEO to give them visual of Kara on her more dangerous missions. There were security video captures installed in Kara’s apartment ONLY to be used during the most important of times, put in place after Kara’s first bout of Red K, to ensure they could observe her behavior away from others if it was out of the ordinary. There were sometimes Kara forgot to close down the Skype when they would talk before Kara’s dates, Kara needing pep talks and advice and opinions on clothing or just desperate for help when baking went awry. There were other DEO agents who noticed sweet happenings and snapped a quick photo of the super couple, sending them to her. Even some of her old friends that were out at a bar or a time where Maggie had been at a karaoke bar and noticed Kara and sent a quick snap to her just to say hey. There was a wealth of resources to be utilized and…she may have abused her power in some areas. 

But it was her sister, her baby sister, who was in a really serious relationship, and sue her if she wanted to savor and remember how it bloomed into where it was now and where it would go in the future.

Looking at Kara and Mon-El now, having slowed to a normal human pace as they got lost in the memories each photo invoked, she was happy she’d done it and she’d do it again, whatever rules or regulations or laws she’d broken be damned. 

She moved to sit down on one of the arm chairs, watching the sweet scene of her sister and her fiancé sorting through pictures, watching as Kara blushed at one in particular and buried her face in Mon-El’s shoulder as he chuckled and smiled and pressed a kiss to whatever part of her face he could reach. They would NEVER be able to finish one book before tonight, not even with their superspeed if they got this lost in each photo. Even with her threat looming over them. They all knew she wouldn’t dare take the pictures away from them…

She would have to find another way to motivate them to keep on task.

She didn’t know what it would be and, oddly, she wasn’t really THAT concerned with it. Her sister was happy and in love and getting married, and SHE couldn’t be happier to be able to witness it.

So let Kara and Mon-El get lost in the memories. They were just too sweet to even try and stop. And she really was a sap.

…maybe Maggie would have better luck whipping them into shape and keeping them focused?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :-) I really wanted to have some kind of pre-wedding moment and the sweetest thing I could think of, besides the two eating caramel popcorn ;-) was thinking about all those adorable pictures Alex took of them. Because they were always just so sweet and just imagining Kara and Mon-El being able to look at ALL of them and gushing about how sweet each was got to me :-) And now we finally know how Alex got them! Some by luck, some by Kara's forgetfulness, some by the DEO...and some by Alex borderline breaking the law. Which, I think, is quite an Alex thing to do when it comes to her sister.


	30. Doing Something Hot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forewarning, I seriously cannot write smut or anything close to that. So unfortunately the "hot" in this chapter will be something a little more literal ;-) Also, this chapter is inspired by a few pictures of Melwood that I saw on tumblr.

Kara couldn’t help but laugh as she watched Mon-El splashing away in the ocean, a look of complete wonder and joy on his face. He looked so much like a child on Christmas morning she would have never thought that it was the middle of summer and the hottest day of the year so far. Well, not that she or Mon-El could really feel it. With the Yellow Sun blazing above them, they were both more energized than ever and barely even noticed the heat. Thankfully the ocean also provided them a means to appear sweaty when they were the farthest thing from it.

And, thankfully for her at least, the ocean also provided Mon-El a look she quite liked to see. She never thought she’d be the sort to enjoy seeing her boyfriend dripping wet before, but the first time he’d taken a shower and forgotten a towel…she was woman enough to admit she’d had quite a few dreams about him over it.

So perhaps her putting in a request for a two-day vacation at the DEO for herself and Mon-El hadn’t been completely selfless in a desire to offer him an experience he hadn’t had on Earth but had wanted to see. They’d watched a documentary about the ocean and beach pollution and Mon-El had mentioned, just in passing, that he’d used to love the oceans on Daxam. And not just the endless supply of nude beaches, but the waves and the more private beaches reserved for the royal family. It had been, he’d said, his quiet place. The palace had been located with a beach in sight and he would often go there when things got too much or the drugs stopped working and he wasn’t in a position to use more. 

(Her heart had broken when he’d explained just how terrible the drugs on Daxam were, especially for himself. Being royalty, he couldn’t be drunk or drugged too much or else it would bring shame on his family name and make him seem to be an incompetent heir. So the times he DID use them, he used as much as he could, because those were often situations where he needed to not feel or else he’d break completely. Sometimes, he admitted, he felt his mother would sneak him drugs into his food to make him more compliant or silent about things she and his father were doing that they KNEW he’d be too vocal about normally. Because he wasn’t as used to the drugs as other Daxamites, once they wore off, he felt just horrible and dirty. He’d often go to the beach to gather himself and take strength from the calm way the ocean kept going, how it kept beating against the beach even when its efforts seemed to do nothing at all. He liked to think of himself as the ocean, moving even when he wanted to give up, pushing against the unmoving beach and, maybe, in the smallest amount, making a difference.)

She had decided then and there that she’d introduce him to the nearest beach to National City as soon as she could. She’d had to put in the day-off request with the DEO and CatCo early enough to get both to give her the days, and then she’d sneakily called the bar to see if Mon-El could take two off as well for those days. It had required a lot of sneaking about but she’d done it…and Mon-El’s reaction when she’d surprised him was worth it.

He had stood, gaping, at the beach before taking off running for the water, leaving her laughing behind him with all their things. She hadn’t minded at all, hadn’t blamed him for leaving her to carry the cooler and umbrella, the bags and the towels. It was early enough in the day that there was next to no one there, none close enough to notice a single girl carrying all of that. And his excitement was adorable. She really would have rather been able to watch him taking that dive into the waves with unbridled happiness than have him restrain himself.

She had joined him fairly quickly after setting up and the first thing Mon-El had done when he saw her appear out of the water was to pull her in close and bestow the most breathtaking kiss of her life on her. He’d hugged her so tightly after, thanking her so many times, she was sure the memory would forever be burned into her memory.

(She was almost disappointed that there was literally NO way Alex could sneak pictures of them like this. She wouldn’t have minded pictures of their first beach adventure.)

They had splashed about for hours, even as the beach filled up with humans. They had kissed and sat in the sand, built a sandcastle. She’d even gotten him to agree to sunbathe with her. It wasn’t like they could burn, but she’d also gotten him to apply sunscreen to her back and her to his for show. She’d explained that they could absorb the energy of the sun more just resting in its light and it would leave them more energized for the rest of the afternoon, which was the only way she’d gotten him to stop moving for the first time since they’d gotten there. It had been nice to lie there in the warmth of the sun, holding her boyfriend’s hand. She had even been able to tune out the sounds of the humans and children around her. The only sound she had heard besides the gentle waves was Mon-El’s breathing and beating of his heart. 

(She understood what Clark meant now, about being able to hear Lois’s heartbeat no matter how far away she was. SHE could hear Mon-El’s easily now, without thought, just…needing the reassurance that it was still beating.)

Now though, they’d gone a while without making a show of eating. Well, it wouldn’t quite be a show, they DID need to eat, it was just…without exerting superpowers and with the yellow sun beaming so much energy at them, they hadn’t needed the extra energy. Still, it was a good time to call Mon-El in for the sandwiches she’d prepared in the cooler.

She hadn’t even needed to shout to him, just speak quietly under her breath that it was time to eat and Mon-El caught it, making it seem like he was just coming in from the ocean play for a rest so as not to make other humans notice. 

Kara’s smile widened as Mon-El plopped onto the towel next to hers while she rested on her knees to dig out the sandwiches, noticing him looking at her with the most adoring look on his face. “What?”

Mon-El shook his head, accepting the sandwich with thanks in his eyes. “You are…amazing, Kara Zor-El.”

Kara flushed lightly at that, trying to purse her lips to contain her smile but it just made her look happier. She really, really enjoyed hearing him call her Kara Zor-El. To so many humans, she was Supergirl. To her close friends and family, she was Kara Danvers. But only to Mon-El was she Kara Zor-El, the alien, the person SHE was inside, not the mask she put on for every other person. Alex and Eliza saw more of her real self than most others, but Mon-El…she felt like she really COULD be herself around him, all of herself. She held nothing back from him, not remarks about other planets, not stories of Krypton’s customs, not her strength. She really was herself, Kara Zor-El, with him.

“You’re not so bad yourself,” she countered.

But Mon-El just kept looking at her. “You didn’t have to do this, you know.”

“I know,” Kara agreed. “But I wanted to. The beaches of Daxam were your special place, like the Fortress is my special place here. I wanted to give that back to you. At least some small piece of home, even if it isn’t the same.”

“As sweet as that is and as much as I appreciate it,” Mon-El reached out to take her hand, holding in a laugh at how Kara had taken an enormous bite of her sandwich, making chipmunk cheeks. “I didn’t really need a piece of home. I already had one.”

Kara’s brow furrowed in confusion, Mon-El letting her chew and swallow before she could speak. “Please tell me you aren’t talking about the DEO cells…”

Mon-El had explained to her that his mother, after the first time she’d attacked, was going to lock Mon-El up in a cell for the four year journey to Daxam. She had been completely furious to hear that, had gone on a long-winded rant about how terrible it was and how damaging it could have been to him to be isolated like that for four years…

And he’d broken her heart by telling her it wouldn’t have been that bad. Something about how he’d said it had made her pause. He’d added that he’d gotten quite used to isolation as a child, even explaining that there were different types of isolation. Being locked away was one, being left alone in a crowd was another, having your life controlled so rigorously that you couldn’t form attachments to anyone else…he’d experienced probably every form of isolation. Four years in a cell would have been nothing he couldn’t handle.

It had made her think back to his first time in the DEO cell after he’d woken on Earth, how calmly he had taken being locked away. Most criminals would at least try to break out, would hit the glass, would shout at her, they just hated it. But Mon-El had been eerily calm and accepting, hadn’t even batted an eyelash at being locked away and left alone. He might have even thought they’d torture him for information at one point, but he hadn’t even reacted. She hadn’t given it much thought at the time, but after Mon-El had mentioned his experience with isolation, she’d felt so guilty.

If he was talking about the cells reminding him of home…

Mon-El let out a little laugh at that, setting his sandwich aside to take her other hand. “As warm and fuzzy as the DEO makes me feel,” he teased her. “I was talking about you.”

Kara blinked. “ME?” She would have pointed to herself if Mon-El hadn’t been holding both hands.

“You,” he confirmed. “You make me feel less alone. You make me feel safe and loved and…happy.” His voice began to take on a serious and deep note that had her hanging off every word he was saying. “I never felt that before, I never felt a lot of what you make me feel before. You are the greatest thing, the best thing, that has ever happened to me Kara Zor-El. You make me want to be a better person…”

“You’re a great person,” Kara cut in gently, lightly tugging her hands from his to cup his face. “You have such a big heart…”

“I didn’t always…”

“You DID,” she insisted. “You just…couldn’t show how big before.”

“Maybe.” He shrugged, not about to argue, but not agreeing either. “I’m glad I’ll never know. I’m glad that I’ll never have to know what I would have become on Daxam. And I’m glad I met you. I’m glad you took a chance on me. And I’m so happy with you, Kara. I hope that you’re happy with me too.”

“VERY happy,” she reassured him.

“Yeah?” He smiled.

“Yeah.” She let out a little giggle.

“Good, good.” He swallowed hard, his expression slowly morphing from the confident one he’d had moments before to something nervous, and so unlike him. “I want to keep making you happy. I feel like…like I can’t be happy if you’re not. And I know that I screw up, a lot. Not as much as when I first got here,” he added, seeing her about to protest. “But I do, and so do you,” he teased her, making her roll her eyes. “And I like that, when we screw up, we talk and we work on it. I like that we don’t give up on each other, that we make each other better. I…Kara…I can’t imagine my life without you in it.”

Kara could feel tears filling her eyes at how he was speaking, what he was saying, because it was everything she felt too. “Me neither.”

“Then…maybe…you might consider something?”

Kara began to frown. “What?”

“Marrying me?”

Kara didn’t know how he had done it or where he had hidden it, because SHE had packed the bags and she had NOT seen him move his hands at all…but when she looked down…there was a small black box held in his hands with an engagement ring sitting in it. But not just a regular diamond ring, a silver band with a gem set in the middle the exact same shade of her eyes.

And she was speechless, gaping at the ring, her gaze flickering from it to him and back over and over.

Mon-El started to fidget at her growing silence. “Did I do that right? I didn’t, did I? Eliza said I just had to ask you and Alex swore there wasn’t an actual tradition attached to it. But I did it wrong. I KNEW I should have watched more of those movies Winn sent me and…”

“NO!” Kara nearly shouted, just imagining what Mon-El would have planned for her had he watched any of the rom-coms she didn’t doubt Winn would supply him with featuring men trying to propose to their girlfriends.

Men proposing.

Mon-El had just proposed to her!

He had asked her to marry him!

Just as she was about to beam at the reminder, she noticed Mon-El seemed absolutely heartbroken.

“I understand,” Mon-El was saying, his voice sounding chocked with tears. 

It was only when he began to lower the ring and move like he was going to put it away that it hit Kara what had happened. 

Mon-El had asked her to marry him, and the first thing she had said (shouted) was NO. It hadn’t even crossed his mind she was answering his other question about if he’d done it wrong, he truly thought she was turning down his marriage proposal.

“No, no, Mon-El, I mean yes!”

Mon-El paused and glanced at her, his expression growing less heartbroken and more confused.

She was making a mess of it this time. She took a breath. “Yes, I would LOVE to marry you. No, you didn’t do it wrong at all. I was just stunned. I just…” This time it was her voice full of tears, happy ones though. “You want to marry ME?” 

“Of course I do!” And now one of his hands was on her face, half cupping it, half touching her wet hair. “I love you Kara, with everything I have. And I would love nothing more than for you to be my wife, or me to be your husband, for…for us to be mates.”

Kara let out a joyous giggle and flung herself at him, pulling him into a deep and passionate kiss completely out of line for such a public place with children around, but she couldn’t help it. She was getting married! She was going to marry Mon-El!

She pulled away, beaming at him, her heart racing when she saw him smiling now. “Put it on me!” she cheered, holding out her left hand. “Put it on me! Put it on me! Put it on me!”

Mon-El laughed and moved to do just that. “I liked it so I put a ring on it.”

Kara couldn’t help but whack him in the shoulder for that.

“What?” he demanded, but there was too much laughter in his voice. “That’s what you’re supposed to do right?”

“Yes,” Kara couldn’t help but say as she leaned in to kiss him again, her left hand resting on his cheek, the ring glinting in the sun. “Yes it is.”

She had not expected it, not at all. She’d thought it would just be her and Mon-El, visiting the beach, pretending it was too hot for them like every other human. She hadn’t been expecting this proposal, she’d never really given much thought to any proposal in her life, not after she’d ended up breaking noses just trying to kiss a boy. 

But here she was. Engaged. To a man she was sure was the love of her life.

Best. Day. Ever.

So far at least.

And she was so happy she didn’t even mind coming home to her mother and sister, and their friends, already in her apartment with a giant cake and loads of food, ready to celebrate. It wasn’t till then that Mon-El’s words caught up to her that he had apparently spoken to both Eliza AND Alex about his intention to propose to her and, clearly, gotten their blessings.

(She was so happy, she didn’t even question how Alex had managed to get pictures of the proposal or the outrageously good-quality picture of her and Mon-El just before she kissed him, her ring visible as she touched his face, the two of them looking at each other as though they were each others’ world.)

(She really didn’t question it or mind at all. It was, without a doubt, her favorite picture ever.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so ends the series :-(
> 
> I really want to take a moment to thank all of you who have read and enjoyed the stories. Thank you for all your kudos and comments, they just made my day. For my very first adventure into fanfiction, you all have made it an incredibly good and wonderful experience and I want to thank you for that. I was really nervous to post anything, especially after I saw how much hate Karamel got on tumblr, but you all have been just so awesome, so thank you again :'-)
> 
> On another note:
> 
> I wasn't planning to write anything else after this story, it really was meant to be just a thing to help with the hiatus. But I've been inspired for another story that I'd like to try to write, and then that idea spawned ANOTHER story idea I'd like to write as well. So be on the look out for at least 2 more stories to come.
> 
> I really can't decide which one I'd like to write first, so I think I'll post both of them and go with the flow of updating them when I can :-)


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